A Light in Darkness
by EchidnaPower
Summary: A small band of heroes go back in time to try and prevent a cataclysmic event that would eventually destroy all of creation as they knew it. But what is the nature of this threat? How dangerous is it? And how far will they have to go in order to stop it from viciously destroying all they hold dear? Features a deep cast of Sonic characters, and a very special OC. Read it now!
1. Our Only Hope

**What's up everyone?! EP here with another epic Sonic Adventure! "But EP, what happened to Dash Adventure? Wasn't THAT supposed to be your epic Sonic Adventure?" Why yes indeed, it was, but it sucked so I'm starting over. I'll have more details for you in the author's note below, but for now, let's just get this new adventure started!**

 **Some new characters and some familiar characters are on the way, so I hope you'll bear with me as I start this project anew. I own nothing except the story and Houdini the Sugar Glider.** **  
** **_**

An old and broken down warehouse can be the location for many different shady operations. In many old cartoons, the villains would often keep their secret hideout in an abandoned warehouse on the edge of a town. Sometimes criminals would keep their hidden stash of illegal drugs and their ill-gotten profits to try and avoid detection by the local police. And in some extreme cases, insane psychopaths will hide the bodies of their tortured victims in warehouses such as these.

In this case, an old abandoned warehouse holds the last hope for all of Mobian kind.

"So we're all agreed?" Shadow the Hedgehog, leader of the newest incarnation of the Freedom Fighters, leaned his palms against the surface of the old and rusted metal table as he looked at each member of his war council.

"We don't really have much of a choice now, do we?" That reply came from Silver the Hedgehog, a psychokinetic hedgehog who had joined up with the Freedom Fighters as soon as he'd learned of their existence. "I gotta say though Shadow, I _hate_ the idea of this being our last chance."

"Unfortunately, this _is_ our final option." Blaze the Cat, a Princess from another dimension and born with the power of pyrokinesis so that she could one day become the guardian of the source of power in her own dimension: the Sol Emeralds, spoke grimly at her fellow Freedom Fighters. Unfortunately, soon after the event that caused the devastation of her world, the emeralds were taken from her, and with them, any hope of restoring things to the way they were. "If we are to undo this madness, we cannot fail. If we do, we won't even be alive to see the results of our failure."

A fist slammed onto the table in frustration, startling the group as the owner of the fist glared angrily at the others. "If you had just listened to me in the first place, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess!" Sticks the Badger, a wild jungle girl who'd been forced out of her burrow by the disaster screeched at her teammates. "I tried to tell you that he was acting strangely, but you thought I was _CRAAAAAAZY!"_ she pointed accusingly at Shadow. "You of all people should've noticed Mr. Ultimate Life Form!"

The black hedgehog lowered his head and closed his eyes a moment before looking back at the young badger with an intense gaze. "I was a fool not to notice, but I intend to make up for that grave error right now." Shadow turned his attention to a lanky marsupial who had for the most part kept his focus on a set of blueprints laying on the table. "Have you figured out the best way into the stronghold Yukon?"

Yukon, a young Sugar Glider who had been rescued by Sticks the day the apocalyptic disaster struck, nodded at Shadow and placed his index finger on the blueprints. "I looked over the blueprints Tails had in his lab of Dr. Eggman's old Fortress, and with a little input from Sticks, I think I've managed to find the safest way in."

"There _is_ no safest way in." Sticks scoffed and rolled her eyes. "With evil machines guarding every possible entrance, it won't matter _where_ we try to go in, we'll _still_ be seen!"

"That's a risk we'll have to take." Blaze nodded at the Sugar Glider, "Please continue."

Yukon nodded back and dragged his finger over to the right side of the middle of the map. "This leads to Eggman's old vault, that's probably where Ba'Gan is keeping the Chaos Emeralds." He dragged his finger down the map near the bottom of the blueprint. "It looks like there's an old passageway Eggman installed that leads to the vault, and from the looks of things, it's hidden behind a wall that's since been sealed off, and the other end of the passageway appears cut off too." Yukon looked up and glanced at Shadow. "You know Eggman best, is that passageway still there?"

Shadow stood tall and crossed his arms, his eyes closed as he pondered for a moment. "Knowing the doctor, he likely would've left it available for him in case of an emergency." Shadow opened his eyes. "No doubt that room contained some rather extreme security measures as well."

"I bet _that's_ where he keeps his stash of violins that he used to torment me in my sleep!"

The others looked at Sticks oddly for a moment before continuing. "So what exactly _is_ the plan?" Silver asked.

"The first thing we'll need to do is disable the guards posted at that position. If they're Eggman robots, then we'll need to destroy them quickly so they don't send out a signal to alert the rest of the guards that we're attempting to breach the stronghold." Shadow's expression became grim. "If they turn out to be some of _them..."_ Shadow frowned deeply as the others around him lowered their heads in sadness. "Hopefully there will be a way to save their hosts...but if it's necessary, we will have to destroy them as well."

"The idea of having to murder innocent bystanders..." Yukon shook his head and shuddered. "It goes against everything I believe in...maybe if Silver could hold them still, I could strike a few nerve points and knock them out for a while."

"I could try, but these things have shown they can resist my psychokinesis to a certain extent." Silver looked at his hands and sighed, watching as they pulsated with cyan energy. "Maybe if I'd spent more time honing my skills, I'd be able to handle more than one at a time."

"You mustn't blame yourself Silver, none of us were even _remotely_ prepared for what has taken place." Blaze spoke up. "What matters now is that we fix it."

"Weeeeeell actually, _I was_ prepared." Sticks ran off a moment and returned with crude looking armor that appeared to be made of some form of wood and tied together by vines. "These may not look pretty, but I spent _years_ building sets of armor for me and my friends in case a zombie apocalypse happened." she began handing out the armor to everyone around the table, until she was holding only two sets. "This armor is made out of nothing but wood from the Steelwood Forests and some good ol' fashioned wilderness survival skills." she placed the last spare set on the ground and put on her own, beaming proudly at her teammates. "Wearing these, you could get hit by one of those laser beams of theirs and not even feel it!"

Shadow rolled his eyes and decided to humor the young badger by putting on the armor. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't even entertain the thought of being with this mishmosh of personalities, let alone being their leader. But then again, their circumstances weren't normal. "Thank you Sticks." Shadow nodded with a neutral expression before continuing. "Once inside, it should hopefully be a simple matter of finding the Chaos and Sol Emeralds. Once in our possession, Silver and I will use Chaos Control to open up a time portal, and then we can stop this from ever happening."

"And if something goes horribly wrong?" Sticks asked.

"It _won't_ go wrong."

The badger crossed her arms and raised a skeptical eyebrow at Shadow. "You seem a _bit_ too sure of yourself."

"Not at all." Shadow replied. "I say it _won't_ go wrong because it _can't_ go wrong...if it _does_ go wrong...well...then they've won." Shadow stood tall and looked at each of his teammates. "These mechanical nightmares have absorbed our friends and families, turned them from those we love into instruments of destruction; their sole purpose to absorb all other organic life and add them to their hive mind. Some of us...admittedly...have lost more than others, but we all feel the same passion and desire to right the wrongs and stop this threat from completely overtaking Mobius...and then the rest of not one, but _two_ universes." He looked at Blaze when he said that. "You know what's at stake. After tonight, we will either succeed and live to fight another day, or we will be absorbed like the rest of them." Shadow rubbed at his golden power inhibitors before giving a heavy sigh. "We will move out at 0300 hours...in the meantime, get some rest, you'll need it."

"You get some rest too Shadow, we're gonna need _you_ too." Silver said sympathetically.

The black hedgehog simply nodded and walked away from the table, leaving the rest of his team to their own devices. He ran a hand through his ebony quills as he tried to amp down from the constant adrenaline high he was feeling. While he'd recently gotten used to being around other people, he was by no means built to be a leader...that was more _his_ specialty. He cursed under his breath in frustration at the thought. That confounded blue hedgehog had let himself be the first one to be absorbed, and he never even knew it was happening. "Of course, I should have noticed to begin with. If anyone would know what that looked like, it would be me."

As he continued walking, he spotted a distinct form, colored in an even more distinct shade of pink sitting on a pile of crates in the back of the warehouse. Sighing once more, Shadow walked over to the girl and tried to get her to look at him. "How are you doing Light?"

The bright pink hedgehog just shook her head and sobbed a bit before looking up at the black hedgehog with tears evident in her emerald eyes. The bands on her clothes were glowing dimly to match her somber mood, and it broke the black hedgehog's heart to see her so reduced. "I still can't believe it Shadow...how could they...how could they just..." she sobbed a few more times and buried her face in her hands.

Shadow moved in to embrace the hedgehog girl, stroking her quills in an attempt to comfort her. "They did what they felt they had to do, they wanted to try and protect you." He used his finger to tilt her head up at him so she could look at him. "They didn't volunteer to be absorbed Aurora, they fought to the bitter end, like true heroes should...even your father fought it until there was simply nothing left of him to fight back."

Aurora the Hedgehog, the final member of the Freedom Fighters...and more famously...the daughter of Sonic the Hedgehog and Amy Rose, cried into the chest of her boyfriend as she continued to mourn the loss of her parents and extended family. Her Uncles Tails and Knuckles, they'd been absorbed fighting off the monsters while trying to get them the blueprints to Eggman's former fortress, only Shadow had managed to escape, albeit barely. Her Aunt Rouge had been absorbed trying to gather information from the G.U.N. Headquarters about the current threat they were facing, and those were just the ones she knew about regarding their fates.

"Aurora." Shadow said consolingly as he gently tilted her head up again. "We'll save them, we're going to save them. _All_ of them. You have my word." The black hedgehog then leaned in and gently kissed the pink hedgehog's forehead. He never imagined falling in love with the daughter of his greatest rival, but after twenty years of travelling the world in search of a better understanding of himself, and also to find someone he'd met during his greatest adventure, he'd come home to find that the ones he once called his friends had reached adulthood, and now had families of their own, most with grown children even.

Coincidentally, the very girl he'd quested to find for over twenty years turned out to be Sonic and Amy's daughter, which naturally added a whole new dimension to the "friendly" rivalry he and Sonic shared. But just as Sonic was beginning to accept the fact that Aurora truly loved Shadow, the disaster struck. Now, there was no time for simple pleasures such as going out to watch a movie and have dinner, there was only slight lulls as a war raged. The speed at which the takeover had occurred was staggering. Just one week before, Shadow was contemplating how to celebrate his and Aurora's one-year anniversary as a couple, and now, he was leading a small band of troops into battle, one from which they might never return.

"Shadow...do you think...we'll be able to save them?" Aurora asked, her voice was almost that of a frightened child, as she looked up at Shadow in uncertainty.

Shadow sighed and frowned as he ran his hand through his quills once more. "I don't know Light...but I swear to you, I will either find a way to do so, or I will _die_ trying."

Instead of comforting her, that had the opposite effect on the pink hedgehog as she clutched tighter to her ebony boyfriend. "I know you're trying to help, but please don't say stuff like that...I already lost my family...I can't...I can't lose you too." She buried her face into his chest and shook her head in defiance of the thoughts invading her mind. "I can't...can't lose you too." she mumbled.

Shadow stood in silence for a few moments, contemplating what to do next. Aurora was usually incredibly upbeat and enthusiastic, and her bubbly personality infected everyone around her, admittedly even himself - to a degree anyway. But ever since the invasion of the mechanical creatures taking over the bodies and minds of her family, she'd been...just the opposite. There had to be a way to make her crack a smile at least, and a recent memory popped into Shadow's mind in answer to that thought.

"Aurora."

"Hmm?"

"Do you remember the look on Blaze's face when she saw that Cream was now over ten years older than her?"

That finally got the pink hedgehog to give a weak yet sincere laugh. "What's weird is that I have memories of the real Blaze coming to visit from her dimension. I never thought I'd meet one of my aunt's best friends and be _older_ than _her."_ She laughed a bit at the remembrance. A time displacement caused by the appearance of the creatures had merged the past of Blaze's world with the present of Mobius, and as a result, Blaze had appeared as well, only still as a young teenager as opposed to the adult that Aurora was more familiar with.

When Aurora had shown the teenaged Blaze a photograph of Cream the Rabbit as an adult, her jaw had dropped clear to the floor. But it didn't take long for the Sol Emerald Guardian to make the mental adjustment and get down to business. All the better for the Freedom Fighters, as her flames would come in handy when the battle began. Upon thinking of the upcoming battle, Shadow spoke up once more. "Aurora...we have a plan. We're going to infiltrate the fortress and steal back the emeralds from Ba'Gan, then we'll open a time portal so we can make sure none of this ever happens. We need your help."

The offspring of Sonic the Hedgehog and Amy Rose looked up at Shadow and got up off the crates so she could stand tall. Taking a deep breath, Aurora nodded with determination and held up a fist. "Let's go stop those Droids. _No one_ messes with _my_ family and gets away with it."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

With their operation planned out to the smallest detail, the small band of Freedom Fighters stealthily made their way to Eggman's former fortress. It was a huge building with walls and lasers and every scientific method of defense one could think of protecting it. However, since the evil scientist had abandoned the lair, the most elaborate defenses had been removed so that they could be installed at his next base. Unfortunately, the creatures called Droids had more than made up for it by making several hundred Mobians their mindless slaves, and given them all orders via the hive mind that they should defend the fortress with their lives.

Upon reaching the fortress, the Ultimate Life Form peeked his head out from behind a bush, and he looked around to scope things out. "All clear." Shadow stepped out of the foliage and gestured with his hand to summon his teammates. As they began emerging in single file, the black hedgehog took note of the two guards standing watch in front of the wall they were targeting. "Generic Egg Pawns. Excellent. It should be easy enough to disable them. Silver, Blaze, go!"

Acknowledging Shadow's signal, the lavender cat leaped up into a tree and looked for a good vantage point. Once she felt she had a good shot, she looked down at Silver and nodded at him, and moments later Silver advanced on the robots. "Uh, hi, take me to your leader?"

The robots immediately made a move to contact more guards, but a giant fireball struck them from above, and less than a second later, a psychic shield appeared and surrounded the blast, keeping the sound of the explosion from being detected. "Nice work Silver." Blaze said as she hopped out of the tree, her palms still smoking from the attack. "So what's the next step?" she asked as Shadow and the others walked up to her and Silver.

"Well," Yukon stepped forward and began feeling the wall carefully. "If I read the blueprints properly, there _should_ be a switch that'll open up the secret passage." Moments later, Yukon's eyes widened slightly, and the wall opened up, revealing an old and dusty passage. "There ya go, they don't call me Houdini for nothing." Yukon pointed at himself proudly.

"The easy part is done, now we get to the _real_ tough stuff!" Sticks seemed almost excited at the prospect. "Those machine maniacs will think twice before attacking _my_ friends again!"

Shadow chose to ignore the badger and nodded at his girlfriend, who immediately understood his unspoken request and nodded back, as her suit began glowing brightly to allow her friends to see. "We've made it this far, but Sticks was right. This was the _easy_ part. Now we've gotta find a way to _stay_ undetected. Let's go." Shadow led the team into the dark passageway, Aurora's unique photokinetic powers lighting the way for them, just enough so they could see where they were going.

As they continued, a sense of unease began to envelop the Freedom Fighters. They had yet to encounter any form of resistance, and while that could be interpreted as a good thing, they couldn't shake this feeling that something was wrong. "I understand that this was the way we wanted the plan to go, but doesn't this seem a bit _too_ easy?" Blaze whispered.

"Maybe...we're just a lot better at this than we thought?" Silver's voice betrayed that he definitely didn't believe his own words.

"They're here...I know they are." Sticks hissed lowly, looking around frantically. "I'm not exactly sure where, but we're not alone."

"We're almost at the end of the passageway." Yukon took a few steps so that he was ahead of Aurora, but he suddenly gave a terrified yelp when he ran into something. Looking down, the Sugar Glider saw that he had merely bumped into a piece of scrap metal from one of Eggman's old badniks, and he placed a hand over his rapidly beating heart as he tried to catch his breath. "Sorry...guess I'm a little on edge." He looked up again. Then he screamed in mortal terror.

"We've been detected!" Shadow launched a Chaos Spear which struck where the heart would have been for the tall Droid soldier that had been staring coldly at them in the dark, and the former Mobian fell to the ground with his mechanical parts sparking violently from the hit. "Aurora, light up the room!"

Aurora concentrated and strengthened the output of her powers, and soon the room was bright enough that everything could be seen. "There's no one else here?"

"They will be soon, I hear them! Hundreds... _thousands_ of 'em!" Sticks exclaimed as she stared at the ceiling above them.

"Then we've no time to waste, we _must_ get to the vault before they do!" Blaze was about to rush forward, when she turned suddenly at the agonized cry Aurora had given out. "What's the matter?!" She looked to the ground and saw the pink hedgehog trying desperately not to burst into tears, as she was staring at the unmoving corpse of the Droid that Shadow had just destroyed. "Oh no..."

The dead Droid was quite clearly Miles "Tails" Prower.

"Uncle Tails!" Tears began to flow from Aurora's emerald eyes, as she mourned the loss of her beloved Uncle. "Why did it have to be you? Of all the Droids they had, _why did it have to be you?!"_

"I should've realized." Shadow cursed under his breath. "When Tails was absorbed, the Droid Hive Mind obtained all of his knowledge and all of his memories, _including_ his knowledge of our plan to use the passageway!"

"So then they knew we'd be here!" Silver's eyes widened in horror.

"But then why send Tails down here by himself if they _knew_ we were here? Why not bring a whole army?" Yukon wondered.

"There's no time to think! We've already spent too much time thinking!" Sticks shouted. "They know we're here? So let's stop acting like they don't! Let's storm this place!" The wild Badger gave a shrill battle cry and pulled her Bow Staff out from behind her back, and she charged down the corridor shouting expletives, which was soon followed by the unmistakable sounds of battle.

"Looks like we're doing this the hard way!" Blaze rushed forwards with Silver hovering right next to her, and Yukon followed to the best of his ability, as his speed was nowhere near that of Blaze and the flying silver hedgehog.

Shadow was about to join them when he took note of Aurora's state. The pink hedgehog was kneeling next to the body of what used to be her uncle, mindlessly staring at all the wires and gadgets that ran through and around his body. A mechanical eyepiece had been placed where his left eye used to be, and his right arm was now a form of claw with a laser at the end of it. "Aurora, we can fix this, but we need your help!" he said as gently but as urgently as he could. "If we get to the Chaos Emeralds, we can open a time portal, and reverse all of this!" he held his hand out to her. "I can't do this without you."

Aurora looked up at Shadow, then back down at Tails. Taking a moment to fold his hand and robotic arm over his wire filled chest, she got up and nodded at him. "Let's go. I want my family back."

Shadow nodded and took off running, Aurora matching him stride for stride with the speed she inherited from her father. They soon reached a light at the end of the passageway, and once they went through it, they saw the floor littered with Droids that had been knocked unconscious by their teammates. "Looks like you've got this handled."

Sticks snorted. "Like these dummy Droids had any chance against real flesh and blood!"

"Um...they used to _be_ flesh and blood." Silver pointed out.

The badger narrowed her eyes at the psychokinetic hedgehog. "Stop trying to confuse my brain with details."

"Enough." Shadow took a few steps forward and examined the glass cases that held the Chaos and Sol Emeralds. "It won't take long for reinforcements to arrive so let's do this quick." the black hedgehog reared his fist back and shattered the glass with his punch, setting off an alarm throughout the fortress. "The alarm is moot, they already know we're here. Silver, grab an emerald!"

"This oughta slow the Droids down a little!" Yukon gave a sharp kick to the electronic panel and destroyed it, effectively locking the Droids out, at least for the moment. "I doubt that'll make a difference for long, make it fast you two!"

Shadow and Silver nodded at each other and held up a Chaos Emerald each. "Chaos Control!"

With the combined efforts of the two hedgehogs, a swirling vortex of energy slowly began to form. "It's working!" Silver cheered. But then the door burst open, sending Yukon and Blaze flying backwards, and they slammed into the wall and crumpled to the ground from the impact. Upon seeing the Droids beginning to march in, Silver stretched out his free hand and attempted to put up a psychic barrier to hold them out, but the cyborgs quickly changed tactics and started opening fire on the barrier. "I can't hold it!" Silver strained.

Moments later, the barrier shattered, and the psychic backlash sent Silver crumpling to the ground just as the time portal was finished forming. But instead of advancing, the Droids merely stepped aside and allowed something to walk past them, and the sight made Shadow, Sticks and especially Aurora tense up. "So Shadow, you've managed to avoid absorption. You always were a pest." Standing in front of them was none other than the form of Sonic the Hedgehog himself, but unlike the Droids, Sonic's body had been left unmutilated by internal or external machinery. Instead, the only sign that anything was wrong with Sonic was the glowing red eyes and the distorted voice. "I compliment you on making it this far, but you must know resistance is futile. You will be absorbed into the hive mind and serve me, and assist me in achieving my goals."

"No!" Aurora rushed over to Sonic's body before Shadow could stop her, and she stood in front of him with desperation all over her face. "Daddy it's me! It's your Tiny! Please, you've got to fight this! Don't give into Ba'Gan! I _know_ you're strong enough to beat him!"

Ba'Gan chuckled and grinned evilly at the pink hedgehog. "There was a time long ago when that would have worked...but that time has passed. Now, there is only me." Ba'Gan took a step forward and Aurora immediately took two steps back. "Your father is gone Aurora, I am all that remains."

"I don't believe it." she dropped her head and shook it in weak defiance.

The alien creature just chuckled again and looked over at the emeralds. "This has gone on long enough." he said casually. "Now I shall capture you and have you all absorbed into the hive mind...but first, I think I'll have some fun by giving you all a beating you'll never forget...unless I want you to, that is." the emeralds began glowing black, and Aurora moaned as the negative energy began to radiate from the emeralds. "Does that energy bother you Tiny?" he asked with a condescending sneer. "I'm so sorry. I'll make it all stop soon."

Aurora growled at the now pure black-hued hedgehog that she once knew as her father. "Don't call me that ever again, only my father can call me that."

"Oh? Well in a sense, I _am_ your father. So treat me with respect little girl!" Ba'Gan grabbed Aurora's wrist and began squeezing tightly as he lifted her into the air, and she gave a brief cry of pain from the pressure. Then the monster brought Aurora as close to his face as he could without actually touching hers. "Welcome to the family." he chortled.

"No!" Without warning, Ba'Gan was knocked back by a golden figure, and the pink hedgehog's savior caught her and gently put her down as he glared angrily at the leader of the Droid army. "Are you ok Light?"

Aurora shook her head to get her bearings, clutching at her hurting wrist as she looked up to find her boyfriend now in his golden super form, the positive energy emanating from him quickly making her feel stronger. "I'm ok, but what do we do now?"

Shadow kept his eyes locked onto Ba'Gan, who now seemed to be glaring at him despite the lack of any pupils, as customary for Sonic's dark super form. "Take the others, go through the portal, I'll hold off Ba'Gan long enough for you to escape!"

"What?!" Aurora's eyes widened in horror. "That's crazy! You can't beat them all by yourself!"

"I don't _need_ to beat him." Shadow twisted the bracelets off of his wrists, and they fell to the ground as the golden hedgehog prepared to unleash his true power. "I just need to slow him down."

"But our plan! We _need_ you! _I_ need you! You'll _die_ Shadow, please don't do this!"

Shadow looked into Aurora's pleading eyes for just a moment, and suddenly his own eyes widened in an apparent revelation. "Of course." he couldn't help but chuckle to himself. "Aurora, you _have_ to go, if you don't, your family is doomed, and I will be too."

Before Aurora could inquire as to what his meaning was, Ba'Gan surged ahead and tackled Shadow into the wall of the vault, growling viciously at him as if he were a wild animal. "You're _already_ doomed! I will obliterate you Shadow the Hedgehog, but not before I make you watch each and every one of your so-called friends be absorbed in the most agonizingly painful way possible!"

Instead of returning the threat, Shadow turned his head to look at his young girlfriend. "Hurry Aurora! Time's running out!" he maneuvered his arm so he could keep Ba'Gan at bay for just a moment, "I promise, you _will_ see me again! Just go through the portal! Change history for the better!"

"No, you won't take away my victory!" Ba'Gan was about to move in to destroy the pink hedgehog, but Shadow quickly grabbed hold of the dark beast and held him tight in a headlock. "Let go of me you miserable parasite!"

"Takes one to know one." Shadow quipped with an effort-filled growl. Then he looked up at Aurora, who was gathering her friends and leading them to the portal. "You caught us off-guard once Ba'Gan, but it looks like you got more than that blue faker's body, you also got his infernal cockiness. Now, it's gonna cost you."

Only Aurora had yet to leave, and she looked over at her boyfriend who seemed to be fading fast as the removal of his power inhibitors had caused his energy to drain at a rapid pace. "Shadow..."

"I love you Aurora, promise me you'll light up the darkness when you get to the past!"

"Huh? W-What does that mean?"

Shadow grunted as he almost lost control of Ba'Gan, whose rage had kept him from realizing that his Droid army was still awaiting commands. "Just promise me Light!"

"O-Ok! I promise!"

Shadow smiled. "Good...now go!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ba'Gan finally broke free of Shadow's grip, but he was just a split-second too late to stop the pink hedgehog from diving headfirst into the portal, and it disappeared seconds later, much to the alien being's rage. He glowered at the now once again black hedgehog and picked him up by the throat, squeezing it as tightly as he could. "Your time is up, Ultimate Life Form, you have not won this battle."

Shadow could feel his consciousness fading as Ba'Gan strangled him, but despite the extreme pain, he was able to give a faint and triumphant smile just before death took hold of him. "She's safe...I've already won." With that, the Ultimate Life Form fell to the ground as Ba'Gan dropped his now lifeless body, that same triumphant smile on his face even in death. The mission had been completed.  
_

 **A/N:** **So, as everyone knows, Dash Adventures pretty much fell on its face as far as the ambitious movie project went, but looking back on it, maybe that was a good thing. The old story was so bad that I cringed while trying to read my own writing. Seriously, I've become - night and day - a better writer than whoever the loser was who originally wrote Dash Adventure years ago.**

 **But the fact that I hadn't been able to finish my plans for the story haunt me to this very day. Even if the movie failed, I fully expected to one day go back and finish the story. That never happened, and as a result I was left with an unfinished story in my story list. I couldn't stand it. So, now I've deleted the old story, and I'm starting over from scratch...only this time, I know exactly who and what I want involved. There won't be an army of fan characters taking the spotlight this time, just a couple to add some depth.**

 **The first one is my original FC, Yukon "Houdini" the Sugar Glider. Those who remember reading the original story know that Houdini was created in honor of my late pet Houdini, a sugar glider who had a distinct knack for escaping his cage no matter what we did to keep him in. He's still the same, but this time I'm gonna do better with writing him.**

 **The other one is my distinct pleasure and honor to introduce, as this character is the one that initially inspired me to start over from scratch and gave me the idea I needed to get this project going in the first place. Some of you may already know her, but for those of you who don't, allow me to give a proper introduction.**

 **Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly introduce to you, Aurora the Hedgehog, the original fan character (does she even qualify for that label at this point? It seems beneath Aurora) of deviantART and Tumblr's E-Vay, one of the greatest Sonamy artists you'll ever find and the creator of Aurora. E-Vay graciously gave me permission to use her character, and I intend to make her proud with my work.**

 **I feel that my story won't be enough to do Aurora's character justice, so for those of you who are curious, look up E-Vay on Tumblr and see who Aurora really is straight from the creator's own imagination. I'll do my best, but to get the true Aurora experience, you need to check out E-Vay's stuff on Tumblr.**

 **Anyways, long author's note is long, I apologize. So the adventure begins again! Only this time it's a lot darker than before. So what will happen next? You all will have to stay tuned to find out. Get ready people, it's gonna be a long ride! Please read and review!**


	2. Visions of the Past

**What's up everyone? Five reviews already? Truthfully I wasn't even expecting that much. The Sonic the Hedgehog category is so saturated with stories already that it can be difficult to muster up the determination to actually browse the story list. So for those five of you who took the time to review, I am quite grateful.**

 **Now then, this next chapter is a little shorter than the previous one, but it sets up some things that needed to be set up. So without further ado, let us begin! I own nothing except the story and Yukon "Houdini" the Sugar Glider. Aurora the Hedgehog belongs to E-Vay  
_**

Space. Nothing but an empty vacuum, devoid of any sort of pollution or undesirable elements. Here in this dark void, one can view the majesty of hundreds of trillions of twinkling stars and planets, stretching out across the universe. A totally pure landscape.

But it's here in this landscape that a great threat is being created. To the untrained eye, it would appear to be just another generic star in the night sky, one that young children in their beds would look out of their windows and see and innocently make a wish on. But to those who could tell the difference, they would be able to see that there was something very odd about this particular "star" floating in space, and not only was it odd, it was clearly meant to be dangerous.

There in space, a weapon of mass destruction was being created, its power unmatched throughout the known universe. The weapon's given name: The Death Egg. Its creator: None other than the brilliant scientist and notorious super villain, Dr. Ivo Robotnik, otherwise known as Dr. Eggman.

Eggman watched his thousands of robot workers go about their business constructing his newest fortress from up high on a balcony with a satisfied sneer on his face. It had taken a lot of ingenuity on his part to keep the longtime construction of this newest incarnation of his classic Death Egg undetected from Miles "Tails" Prower's sensors. He chuckled a bit at the thought. Though he was loathe to admit it - even to himself - the young fox boy had proven to be a more than worthy intellectual opponent over the years. But this time, things would be different, he was sure of it.

"Doctor, everything is going according to plan, we're currently on schedule for full power output within the next 24 hours." Orbot, a red sphere-like robot created by Eggman to keep all of his plans running smoothly, gave his report as he held a clipboard and pencil in hand.

"And what of the Egg Carrier 3.0?" Eggman asked without looking away from the construction robots.

 _"Also_ on schedule. The warp engines have been installed and the shields are currently charging up to full capacity." Orbot floated up to where his boss was watching the construction. "If I may say so Doctor, I sincerely believe that this might be your _greatest_ plan yet. You've thought everything out very well this time, I'm quite proud."

Eggman snorted and gave a mild glare to the spherical robot. "Lucky for you, I'm in too good a mood to disassemble you for that crack." The egg-shaped scientist turned and walked towards what appeared to be a sort of stasis tube, staring intently at the creature suspended inside. "This has been a _long time_ in coming. All of those other plans, all of those other chances to take over the world and recreate it in my own glorious image, they never bore fruit...but even though those were failures in the short-term, they only helped bring me closer to my _ultimate_ plan. One that Sonic and those wretched friends of his would never see coming." he chortled a bit as he pulled a glowing gem out of his pocket and gazed upon its beauty. "With the help of the Chaos Emeralds, I shall revive this creature, and if my research is correct, it will finally be the true key to eliminating Sonic, and world domination."

"Staring at that creepy alien again huh?!"

Eggman jumped and glared angrily at the yellow cube-shaped robot who had suddenly appeared next to him. "What are you doing here?! Don't you have a job to do?!"

"But I'm boooored with working, can't we do something else instead?"

Seeing that Eggman was one word away from destroying his counterpart, Orbot rushed over and covered Cubot's mouth with his own metal hand. "I'll just take Cubot and get back to work. No need to fret Doctor, everything is going according to plan!"

"It _better_ be." Eggman turned and stared up at the alien creature floating in suspended animation in the blue-liquid filled tube, ignoring the hushed bickering of his two bumbling robots. "I've planned for every possible contingency. This time, that blasted hedgehog won't know what hit him. Prepare yourself Sonic, for your time is running short."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Mystic Ruins, normally a peaceful place filled with exotic fauna and wildlife, and if one delved deeply enough into it, one could find the treehouse home of Big the Cat and his best pal Froggy, who was, well, a frog. But tonight, the jungle portion of those ancient ruins would receive a rather significant shock in the form of a whirling vortex of energy suddenly appearing and spitting out several screaming forms and dropping them to the dirt below. One by one they fell, and they fell on each other until there was a pile of Mobians all squashing one rather irate jungle badger.

"I'm not a fan of being touchy-feely, so everyone get off!" Sticks screeched and managed to force everyone off her with a surge of strength, and she dusted herself off before sniffing the air around her. "Hey, I know this place!" Sniffing the air further and then kneeling down to take a taste of the dirt - an act which made everyone else present cringe in disgust - Sticks beamed and jumped back to her feet in excitement. "Incredible! We've somehow been transported to the Mystic Ruins! And by the looks of all the different trees and flowers around us, that portal thingy dropped us off in the middle of the jungle!"

"Leave it to Sticks to be excited about being dumped in a jungle in the middle of nowhere." Aurora scoffed as she finished dusting off her own clothes. Then suddenly her eyes widened and she quickly turned around to look for the time portal, but there was no sign of it. "He didn't make it." Slumping considerably, the pink hedgehog dropped to the ground and hugged her knees to her chest, silently grieving the loss of her boyfriend. "The only way Shadow would've stayed behind is if Ba'Gan killed him, I'm sure of it." she whispered almost to herself.

"Then we must continue the mission, that's what he would've wanted." Blaze said as she looked around to see if anything looked familiar. "Besides, if we're successful, then Shadow and everyone else we left behind will be ok again."

Looking up at her teammates, Aurora nodded and stood back up, taking a deep breath as she tried to collect her emotions. "You're right." she cleared her throat and joined Blaze in trying to identify their location. "So, any idea where we are? I mean, besides the fact that we're in the middle of the Mystic Ruins at night."

"I can see pretty well, but nothing around here looks familiar." Yukon swiftly climbed up a tree and scanned the horizon with his natural night vision. "All I see are more trees, there's no landmarks or anything like that we can use to give us a marker." he hopped out of the tree and crossed his arms in thought. "Of course, even if there were, I wouldn't be able to tell you...I don't know this area very well even in _our own_ time." he chuckled sheepishly. "Guess I didn't really think this through."

"Well I'm not from your time, I should be able to tell if there's anything out here that can tell us where we are." Blaze glanced at each of her teammates. "With that said, I think we should just set up a temporary camp and rest for the night. We're all very tired and there's still some planning to be done. There's no point in trying to navigate the jungle in the dark."

"Can't Aurora there just light things up for us?" Silver curiously pointed a thumb over at Aurora. "I mean, that's her main power isn't it?"

"True, but still, we need rest. We have a long mission ahead of us, and we'll need our strength." Blaze made sure to make eye contact with each of her teammates. "Here's as good a place as any to set up camp. Find some dried up tree branches that may have fallen to the ground and I'll start a fire for us."

Sticks crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at the lavender cat. "And who put _you_ in charge?"

Aurora rolled her eyes and grabbed Sticks by the wrist to drag her away. "We'll be back."

"Aurora let go! She can't talk to us like that! Who does she think she is?!"

As the badger's voice faded, Blaze gave a weary sigh and face-palmed. "This is going to be a long trip." she then took note of Silver's apprehensive expression. "And what's the matter with you Silver? You seem lost in thought."

"Hmm?" Silver glanced up and looked at Blaze when his brain registered that she was talking to him. "Oh. Sorry. I was just thinking...it was something you said, about you not being from our time."

"Yes, what about it?"

Silver began to pace. "Well, I've made it a point to learn as much as I can about time travel, after all, you never know when something like that might become possible."

"Like now?" Yukon said aloud as he reached for some dead-looking branches in a nearby tree.

"Not the point!" Silver exclaimed back with a huff. "Anyway, with every single one of us - with the exception of you - being from over twenty years in the future, we need to be really careful that we don't mess with certain events that could potentially wipe us from existence."

Yukon stopped in his tracks and dropped the branches he gathered to the ground, looking at the silver hedgehog with wide eyes. "I never even thought of that...what happens if we end up changing something that was supposed to happen just to ensure our own existence?!"

"I highly doubt that you two are in any danger regarding that way of thinking. According to Yukon, his parents currently live far, _far_ away from here, and anything that happens here shouldn't have any real effect on them." Blaze turned her attention to Silver. "And as for you...well, you said you never really knew who your parents were, right?"

"Yeah...so?" Silver's voice became noticeably melancholy.

"So, you shouldn't be in too much danger." Blaze lowered her voice. "However, there is _one_ person who stands to lose a lot during this mission."

"What's going on here?"

The three Freedom Fighters suddenly stood up ramrod straight and looked over at Sticks and Aurora, the latter was glowing brightly to try and give her friends some way to see what was happening in the darkness. "Shut off your light!" the cat girl hissed.

Aurora quickly did what she was told and powered down, shocked by the seriousness in the Sol Princess's voice. "What's the matter?"

"It's what I should've explained before when Silver asked." Blaze sighed. "We wanna try and be as inconspicuous as possible, we don't know if Dr. Eggman could be around here somewhere. In my experience in this dimension, the doctor has a nasty habit of showing up just when you don't want him to, and the last thing we need is for him to interfere with our mission."

"Oh yeah." Aurora nodded in agreement as she carefully placed her branches on the ground, Sticks following her lead. "Daddy told me stories about how Eggman would always show up and mess with his dates with Mom."

The cat couldn't help but chuckle a little and shake her head. "Mom and Dad, I still can't quite get used to that." she blinked and looked down at the pile of sticks on the ground, and then she formed a flame in her hand and casually tossed it onto the pile, letting the fire build on the dried up wood. "At least this will give us a little bit of light and warmth without looking too suspicious. Since I'm the only one who the doctor would recognize if he saw us, I'll keep watch and stay out of sight. To him, you all are just random kids having a campout. But if he sees _me,_ all bets are off."

"I'll relieve you after a while!" Silver exclaimed determinedly. "After all, you need your sleep too, you shouldn't have to make sacrifices for all of us."

The princess just shook her head. "I'll be fine, I'm used to these sorts of adventures." Noting the silver hedgehog's sullen expression, the cat girl internally sighed. "However...if I require any rest, I will be sure to alert you Silver."

Apparently satisfied with that, the young hedgehog smiled and laid down on the ground, trying to get into a comfortable position as the heat of the fire warmed his body. "Not exactly a five-star hotel, but hey, it's better than nothing."

"If you ask me, this is _perfect!"_ Sticks crawled next to the fire and curled up into a ball, clutching her trusty boomerang in one hand as she settled down for some sleep. "Out in the wilderness, no signs of civilization, there's no safer place to be."

"It's times like these when I wonder how we've managed to grow up as best friends." Aurora scoffed.

The badger opened one eye and smirked up at her best friend. "It's a government conspiracy." she said playfully. "Now get some sleep, if _I'm_ tired, then you must be _exhausted."_

"Says you." The pink hedgehog laughed and began looking around for something - anything - she could use as a pillow, but all she could find were some nearby rocks. "Terrific. And me without my sleeping bag."

"Well, you _could_ take a big pile of leaves and try to build a nest of some sort." When Yukon received a weird look from Aurora, he shrugged. "I'm not as wilderness savvy as Sticks is, but I _did_ spend a lot of time in the outdoors, I observed some jungle animals doing it, it's worth a shot."

Aurora relinquished a small smile and shook her head. "It's ok Yukon, I'll make due." The pink hedgehog got in-between where Silver and Sticks were currently dozing off and rested her head in her arms as she let the warmth of the nearby flames comfort her into a shallow slumber.

"Good. She needs the rest." Blaze nodded to herself and leaned against the trunk of a tree with her arms crossed, and she turned her head to see Yukon standing in front of her. "Something I can help you with?"

"Not really." Yukon came a bit closer. "Just thought you might want some company, I'm something of a night owl so to speak, so I figured I'd stay with you."

Blaze shrugged and turned back to the others who were now sleeping next to the fire she'd made. "We have a difficult trial ahead of us...we're not even sure where to begin, Shadow didn't give us any clues. _He_ was supposed to lead this mission."

"You seem to be doing pretty well with that aspect."

"Hmm." Blaze mumbled to herself a bit without looking at the marsupial. "Just trying to utilize some of what Sonic taught me. Perhaps when we run into him, he can assume command of the team and our presence will merely provide the required extra power needed to defeat this threat...whatever it is."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Images flashed rapidly in the subconscious mind of Aurora the Hedgehog, visions of pain and suffering endured by her friends and family at the hands of some unknown entity. The anguished cries screamed louder and louder in her mind as the images began to flash by her vision faster and faster. As much as it pained her to do so, she focused on trying to make out what she was seeing and hearing.

Her father shouting in agony.

A roar of determination from her Uncle Knuckles.

Her boyfriend shouting out the name of his signature move in desperation.

An unfamiliar evil cackle.

A horde of evil red robots all closing in on Shadow.

Then the cackle began to grow louder, as it began to override all the other sounds in her mind.

Her Uncle Tails' lab flashed by her just before an evil, soulless presence made almost entirely of negative energy suddenly appeared in her mind and blocked out everything else, the cackle now clearly coming from its hideous form. She fought to wake up and stop this, but even though she was aware she was dreaming, she couldn't seem to wake up, as the creature floated closer and closer, its cackle now becoming almost deafeningly loud. _"No, no, no! Stay away from me! HEEEEEEELLP!"_

 _"AURORA!"_

Aurora shot up and screamed in mortal terror at the top of her lungs as she was at last freed from the nightmare by the dream voice of her boyfriend Shadow calling for her. The sun was just beginning to rise and now all of her teammates were looking at her in concern. Breathing heavily, she looked down at her hands and saw that they were shaking from the fear that image had put into her. Her whole body felt clammy and was covered in cold sweat from what she'd gone through, and needless to say, she was both embarrassed and terrified. "I'm sorry." she managed to whisper, although whether it was aimed at her teammates or Shadow, even she couldn't tell.

Silver placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "What happened to you? You were _screaming_ in your sleep!"

"I had a nightmare...only...it felt so _real."_ she shook her head as she held it in her hands. "Just images, voices, and this evil monster laughing and getting closer and closer...I'd never seen anything like it before." she stayed silent for a few moments before her head shot up and her eyes widened in realization. "There was one other thing, I saw Uncle Tails' lab near the train station to Station Square, just before the monster became the only thing I could see, I think _that's_ where we need to go to get started!"

Yukon tilted his head to the side curiously. "What makes you so sure?"

"Call it instinct." Aurora got up and stared off into the distance. "I'm not exactly sure _how_ I know, but we've _gotta_ get to Uncle Tails' lab, we'll start finding answers there."

"Well, it's not like we have any _other_ options right now." Blaze nodded at the pink hedgehog. "Ok, we'll go to the lab and test out that little vision of yours." she then turned and leaped up into a tall tree, climbing until she reached the top and could see over all the other foliage. Shading the top of her eyes from the rising sun with her hand, Blaze was able to make out what appeared to be a ladder in the distance. "I see a ladder that leads to the edge of a cliff, that _should_ be our ticket out of this jungle!"

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Silver cheered as he rose into the air with his psychokinetic powers. "Let's go save the future! WHOOOOO HOOO!" Silver blasted off at high speeds, leaving his teammates behind in his excitement.

Blaze sighed and shook her head. "He's such a child."

"I dunno, I _welcome_ a little enthusiasm." Yukon grinned at the lavender cat and climbed up the tree as well, and leaped off the top and began to glide off with his natural Sugar Glider gliding membrane outstretched to catch the wind below. "Seeya there!"

"I'm not about to lose a jungle race to _those_ city slickers!" Sticks jumped into the treetops and started swinging from vine to vine, which left just Blaze and Aurora not actively headed towards the distant ladder.

Using this moment of peace, Blaze glanced down at Aurora who appeared rather apprehensive. "You're _sure_ about this?"

Aurora nodded. "I don't know _how_ I know, I just do. If we're gonna stop whatever crazy apocalypse that's supposed to happen, we've gotta get to my uncle's lab...and fast."

"Then let's not waste anymore time." Blaze leaped down and landed on the ground on one knee before getting back up again. "Let's go."

With a determined nod, Aurora raced off with Blaze matching her stride for stride. "Don't worry everyone, I'll find a way to save you. I swear it."  
_

 **A/N: So now we've set some wheels in motion. Eggman has something really big brewing, and now our time traveling heroes have some sort of idea of what they need to do thanks to Aurora's little nightmare.**

 **Gotta be honest, writing Sticks is a bit of a challenge for me. A lot of the stuff she says and does seems random in Sonic Boom. BUT, I'm determined to make it work. Her character might be interesting to play with, and I think I have some idea of what I want her role to be in this story.**

 **Now then, updates for this story will probably come significantly faster than for the other ones I'm working on. I basically have the whole story planned out and all I need to do is just write it down. I haven't abandoned the other stories though, so don't worry. Just a little writer's block.**

 **See you all next time for the next update! Please review!**


	3. Clash on the Death Egg

**Ok...no reviews this time. A little disappointing I'll admit but I guess stories like this need some time to garner interest. The last chapter was mainly meant to catch up with our little band of time travelers and see how they were faring after they arrived in the past/present.**

 **Now we'll get some action and catch up with our main characters. It's been a few years, so things have changed a bit, read on to find out how. I own nothing except the story and Yukon "Houdini" the Sugar Glider. Aurora the Hedgehog belongs to E-vay.  
_**

Miles "Tails" Prower had many talents that he could take advantage of. He could use his two tails like they were a helicopter and take to the skies whenever he chose, he could run at high speeds on the ground like his big brother figure Sonic, although not nearly to his extent, and of course he was something of a child prodigy, possessing a genius IQ even at eight years of age that could rival even Dr. Robotnik's. So naturally, three years later, his intelligence had increased even further, and his physical maturity went along with it.

The still young fox boy had grown a few inches since he'd been eight, and his tails had grown stronger over years of use, allowing him to not only fly for extended periods of time, but also to effectively use them in combat as makeshift weapons. He also took to wearing a tool belt around his waist so that he would never be caught unprepared in case of an emergency, and over the years, that belt had become as much a part of him as his tails were, and almost as useful. All in all, Tails was on his way to becoming a fine young man...but he'd unfortunately picked up one nasty little habit from hanging around Sonic the Hedgehog for so long.

He was not a morning person.

Tails reached a haggard arm out from underneath the covers to try and shut off his digital alarm clock, which was now blaring in his ears and augmenting the insomnia induced headache he was currently suffering from. He'd stayed up late working on a big project, and while it was coming along nicely, it didn't exactly go well with his trying to retrain his body so he could get up in the mornings again without problems. Finally finding the snooze button after some blind feeling around, Tails pressed it and his arm fell limp, hanging over the edge of the bed as a soft snoring filled the thankfully silent bedroom.

Until the alarm went off again ten seconds later, even louder than ever.

That poor alarm clock never stood a chance, as this time a wrench was used to silence its incessant beeping, and as soon as it stopped, Tails dropped the wrench to the ground and groaned as he forced himself to get up. There was no going back to sleep now. His half-lidded eyes turned to the open window, where the barely rising sun's light was just starting to make an appearance. "Six in the morning." he grumbled to himself as he kicked his feet over the edge of his bed and stretched out his arms and worked the kinks out of his neck. "I'll never forgive Sonic for this."

He finally got up and bent down to pick up his wrench, then he grabbed his tool belt from the nightstand, put the wrench in its proper slot, and wrapped the belt around his waist for another day's work. "I'll have to fix that clock again...only _this time,"_ he picked up the smashed device and glared at it. "I'll make sure the snooze button actually does what it's _supposed_ to do." He took the shattered remains of his clock down to his workshop and unceremoniously dropped them on a nearby table before heading to his personally designed computer and booting it up. "Alright, let's see what Eggman is doing today."

It had taken a long time to accomplish, but when Tails turned ten, he'd decided to start taking a more proactive approach in the never-ending war against the scientist commonly known as Eggman, and for every new lair that Eggman would try to hide out in, Tails would find a way to plant miniature spy cameras of his own personal design while Sonic and the others kept Eggman busy. The cameras were small enough to avoid detection and still give the fox boy a good view of the lair, and to this day - as far as he knew - Eggman still had no idea that the eleven-year old super genius was keeping tabs on him.

Though he was still in a bit of a sleep-induced haze, Tails was still aware enough to be able to actually take note of things on the several camera views as he scrolled through each lair individually. At one point he'd spotted Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun sitting around what appeared to be a card table playing what he assumed was Go Fish. "Babysitting that lair for future use no doubt, I'll have to keep an eye on that one." Tails pressed a few keys on his holographic keyboard - also his own design - and programmed the camera feeds to begin with that set of cameras first from now on.

Tails continued to scroll through the lairs, and eventually he reached the last one and then switched the computer to automatic scan, which would alert him of any evil activity - Eggman-based or otherwise - that required the Sonic Team's attention. He spun his chair around and got up and was about to get back to work with his new project when he suddenly stopped cold.

He hadn't seen Eggman himself on any of those feeds.

Tails rushed back to the computer console and activated the manual lair scrolling so that he could get through them at his own pace. Now wide awake, he carefully analyzed each and every camera from every feed for any sighting of Eggman. After that was done, he pressed a large red button on his keyboard that was meant to alert his friends that something was very wrong.

Dr. Ivo Robotnik had vanished.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The moment she'd gotten the alert, a teenaged Amy Rose rushed through the Mystic Ruins train station to get to the source of the distress call. She normally arrived first nowadays, as whenever Tails sent out an alert, it was usually really early in the morning while Sonic was still likely snoring on some tree branch on whatever continent he'd decided to run to that day. Meanwhile, she was already awake and getting ready to start her daily routine.

Once the alert came over the communicators however, she didn't hesitate to stop what she was doing and prepare for action. Whatever casual clothing she'd planned to wear that day (she'd stopped wearing the red dress and boots every day when she'd turned thirteen) was cast aside in favor of what she'd taken to calling her "adventure outfit".

She'd abandoned the dress and "butt-stomping" boots for a more streamlined outfit she began wearing when she'd turned thirteen and became a true member of the team, although if you asked her, she wouldn't be able to tell you why Sonic had shown a significant amount of hesitance in letting her become an official member. Her love for him was still going strong, but she'd taken a much more subtle approach with her feelings and as a result, she and the blue hedgehog she cared for so deeply had grown closer than they ever had been before. But - to her silent dismay - Sonic still refused to take that last step towards actually being "together", and to this day she was still unsure of what his feelings for her were.

But now at the age of fifteen, Amy had long since stopped letting Sonic consume her every thought, and she'd since taken up several hobbies and occupations to fill her time. Not the least of which was combat training with her signature Piko Piko Hammer, which now instead of simply being used as an object meant for slamming down on the heads of robots - and sometimes her friends if they managed to make her mad - was now wielded as a true weapon, one that she did not treat lightly.

The pink hedgehog had certainly blossomed and come into her own as a fifteen year old. She was now taller, stronger, wiser, she'd let her quills grow out a bit so they were longer and reached her mid-back, and her figure was no longer simply an illusion created by her old red dress. She'd taken on a lithe hourglass figure as puberty and her training worked their magic on her, and the fact that she was still developing even now gave the pink hedgehog a certain amount of guilty pride whenever she thought about it. She would certainly never have Rouge the Bat's voluptuous figure, but she was no slouch either.

Yes, the pink hedgehog had grown up to be a young powerhouse of a woman over the years, and she took extreme pride in the fact that she was no longer just on the sidelines while her friends battled against Eggman. She was a true member of the team, a nearly fully-blossomed rose.

But every rose has its thorns.

Once Amy reached Tails' lab, she broke the door down with her hammer hefted in the air and ready to smash whatever was threatening her little brother's safety. "What's going on Tails?! Where's Eggman?! I'll show 'im _this_ time!"

"Nice to see you too Amy." Tails sighed in exasperation before turning his chair away from his computer where he'd been working on trying to find Eggman. He saw her there wearing her 'adventure outfit', which was a red one-piece top with a white collar, yellow buttons on the left side and a lavender sarashi around her waist. She also wore her usual white gloves, but now with purple sports tape and much sleeker and thinner golden ring bracelets around her wrists, purple stockings, and red-violet shoes with pink soles and toes, gray straps and pink plates with two yellow buttons on top. And of course, the one thing unchanged about her for three years, her signature red headband. "Why do you insist on breaking down the door every time? It wasn't even locked."

Amy blinked and made her hammer vanish at the deadpan expression the fox boy was giving her. "So...there's no danger?"

"I didn't say _that."_ Tails turned back around and got back to work, and he merely glanced at the pink hedgehog when she walked up next to him to see what he was doing. "This morning I did my routine check on Eggman, but this time I noticed that he wasn't in _any_ of his lairs."

Amy crossed her arms and tilted her head a bit as she stared intensely at the computer screen, which was displaying a scan of some kind, the likes of which she couldn't recognize. "So you think Eggman might've built himself a _new_ one?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out now. So far I've scanned almost all of Mobius for an abnormally large amount of energy consumption, but so far all of my results have been merely official power plants and highly-populated cities like Downtown Station Square..." Tails gulped a bit before pressing another button on his keyboard. "Which is why now I'm testing out a hunch...one I _really_ hope is wrong."

Amy continued to stare at the screen, but the information coming into the computer still made little to no sense to her. Tails had taught her some basics over the years, but what he was doing now was far too complex for anyone but a super genius like him to understand. "What exactly is it you're doing?"

He didn't answer for a moment, but eventually he gulped again and managed to croak out an answer. "I'm broadening the scope of the lab's sensors to scan outer space."

Amy's eyes widened in horror as she glanced at the anxious fox, it didn't take a genius to figure out what Tails was freaking out about. "Tails...you can't mean...he couldn't..." she looked back at the screen which now suddenly made all too much sense to her. There, on the screen, was a gigantic sphere of metal simply floating in space, one with a face that the two young heroes wished would simply go away and never return. "Another Death Egg..."

Tails began typing feverishly, the holographic keyboard beeping wildly as he worked. "How did that thing evade my sensors? It must've taken _years_ to build it!" The screen zoomed in on the Death Egg and more data started feeding into the computer, and the more Tails read, the more he began to mumble to himself in worry. "This is bad. This is really, _really_ bad." Suddenly and without warning, Tails leaped up from his chair and rushed to his hangar bay, where his numerous planes were waiting for him to pilot them once again.

Amy gave chase. "Where are you going?!"

"You mean where are _we_ going!" Tails leaped up and opened up the cockpit of a large, golden airplane with two giant engines in the back and four wings that combined formed the shape of an 'X' and started it up. He then pressed a button on the dashboard and the hangar bay door began to rise into the ceiling as a runway started forming outside, parting the palm trees that had grown there to allow for a smooth takeoff. "We're gonna go and find Sonic," Amy had by now hopped into the X-Tornado and strapped herself into the seat behind him. "But first we're gonna take a small detour and pick up Knuckles on Angel Island, I get the feeling we're gonna need all the help we can get for this one!" Tails pressed a few buttons and flipped a few switches in sequence as he prepared for launch, and as soon as everything was in place, Tails pulled the left yoke back and the X-Tornado was catapulted into the sky, where it immediately began blasting towards Angel Island at high speed. "I just hope we're not too late."

What they had no idea of was that a small band of Mobians had just arrived at his lab, and they had witnessed the launch of the X-Tornado with a certain amount of anxiety going through them. "No...we're too late!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If there was one thing Sonic the Hedgehog was known for, it was his speed. It was what he lived for, to feel himself becoming one with the wind as he ran at speeds considered unfathomable to most other living beings. He routinely called himself the fastest thing alive, and so far, that rather boisterous proclamation had yet to be proven wrong.

The feeling of freedom that came with running across Mobius, it was something he could never get enough of. The world was his playground, a place filled with enough space that even going faster than the speed of sound, he would never feel caged in or trapped. No one really knew how fast he could truly run, not even Sonic himself had really thought to push his limits to the point where he was struggling to keep up the pace, he was content to just take on a leisurely speed of 765 miles per hour and explore the world he swore to protect. Even after eighteen years on Mobius, he'd yet to explore even half of what the world had to offer, but he'd make sure to explore it all someday.

Sonic himself really hadn't changed much, even though his friends certainly had. While he had merely gone up in height, his friends Amy and Tails were undergoing physical and emotional transformations that honestly awed him. Tails had matured and was no longer reliant on him to take care of him, and Amy...well, she was still Amy, but she'd really changed, and Sonic had recently found himself having to force himself not to look at her for too long.

He played it off as merely him being a guy and being wired to recognize beauty when he saw it. Oh, he wasn't stupid. Sonic could at least acknowledge that Amy was beautiful, not that he'd ever let her know he thought so. Of course, Rouge the Bat could also be considered beautiful, along with Blaze the Cat from the Sol Dimension, and several other females that he'd met over the years. There was nothing special about Amy, and he wished that Tails would quit teasing him whenever he got caught looking at Amy too long.

Thinking about her caused Sonic to inadvertently pick up the pace as he ran through a desert, and he focused instead on the adrenaline rush caused by the increase in velocity. This was truly what he lived for, and there was no greater therapy or distraction in the world. He closed his eyes and reveled in the feeling of the wind in his face and the comforting silence that came with breaking the sound barrier.

But then Sonic opened his eyes again as his sensitive hearing picked up a faint sound, and he turned to his left to see the X-Tornado flying low to the ground next to him, the sound had been the roar of the engines. He slowly began to decrease his speed so that he would be able to hear Tails talking to him, and he activated his communicator so his little bro could keep the cockpit down. "Hey Tails, what's up?"

"We've got big problems Sonic! Eggman's built another Death Egg, and we've gotta go up there and take it out before he tries something!"

Sonic scowled. Normally he'd just laugh off whatever kooky scheme Eggman came up with nowadays, they all seemed so utterly convoluted that he couldn't help but mock them. But the creation of another Death Egg? That wasn't convoluted, that meant that Eggman meant serious business, and so he had to go in and do the same. He took note of the fact that his friendly rival Knuckles was riding on one of the wings while Amy was inside the cockpit with Tails dressed in her adventure outfit, further suggesting that Tails meant every word he'd said. If Knuckles was here, that meant they were in for a long, hard fight.

"Then let's not waste any time!" Sonic leaped onto the free wing of the X-Tornado and knelt down to get his balance. "Let's go take 'im out!"

Without a word, Tails sent the X-Tornado hurtling skywards, and it wasn't long before they escaped Mobius's atmosphere and were on their way to Eggman's gigantic weapon of mass destruction. "We're coming up on the Death Egg!"

"I can't believe we have to destroy this thing _again!"_ Knuckles growled as he clenched his fists in anticipation of the upcoming fight. Knuckles at nineteen was essentially the same as well, albeit taller, but now that he was in his prime, you'd have to look around for a long time to find someone who could match his strength. "You'd think he'd learn his lesson after it failed _twice!"_

"Well ya know, the definition of insanity and all." Amy shrugged.

They began their approach, but they were suddenly cutoff from the Death Egg when an army of red robotic hawks suddenly emerged from a hatch in the enormous sphere. "Sonic, Knuckles, incoming bogeys!" Tails exclaimed.

"Well alright then! About time we got some action!" Sonic stood up and nodded at the red echidna, who nodded back at him before they both leaped off the wings of the X-Tornado and started smashing up robots. "Let's see if ol' Egghead's got any new tricks up his sleeve!"

While Sonic spin dashed through chains of robotic hawks, Knuckles was busy punching them out one at a time as they came. "Looks like we're dealing with the same old scrap metal!" Knuckles grinned and grabbed a hawk by its metal wing and spun it around like a weapon, using it to smash other hawks before throwing it out into the fray once more where it exploded and caused a small chain reaction. "These guys aren't even tough!"

"Count your blessings, things are gonna get a lot harder I'm sure, this is just the first line of defense." Tails pressed the firing button on the right yoke, and the X-Tornado opened fire with a barrage of gatling lasers that took out over two dozen of the army of hawks that were firing at them through their beaks. "We _really_ don't have time for this!"

"I hear ya pal," Sonic smirked and spin dashed through a long, single file line of red hawks and blew them up before coming back to the X-Tornado where Tails was still firing away at the robotic nuisances. "Blaze a trail through these guys and let's go after the big fish!" Sonic glanced over to the other wing where Knuckles had just landed, and he couldn't help but smirk in amusement when the echidna had to do a faceplant onto the wing to avoid a close shot.

"Alright!" Tails pushed a lever forward and the large plane suddenly activated a booster that was normally hidden near the bottom of the plane. "Booster switch on, full speed ahead!" the X-Tornado blasted through the remainder of the robotic hawk army, and seconds later they were docked in what appeared to be one of the Death Egg's shuttlebays, and it was there that they were stunned to see something they never could've seen coming. "Whoa...Eggman's been busier than I thought."

In front of them was a huge flying fortress, one that they recognized from three years ago when the demigod Chaos first appeared to wreak havoc on Station Square. Once again, the Egg Carrier had returned. "Whatever Eggman's up to, he clearly didn't hold anything back to make sure it worked." Amy commented as she stared up at the giant airship.

"It's likely he converted the Egg Carrier into a starship of sorts, there's no way it would be of any use all the way out here unless he had." Tails opened up the cockpit, and he and Amy hopped out seconds later to join Sonic and Knuckles on the ground. "Let's find Eggman." The team nodded at the young genius, and watched as he pulled a small square device out of his tool belt and placed it onto the electronic lock keeping the shuttlebay closed. After a moment or two, the lock flashed green and the door opened moments later, and Tails grabbed his small tool and put it back in his belt. "My electronic codebreaker should keep the alarms from going off as we progress, let's try to keep things quiet if we can help it."

"No promises." Sonic smirked.

Tails gave an amused smirk of his own and led the team of heroes through the corridors with a scanner he'd grabbed from his belt. The corridors themselves were currently unlit with the exception of some faintly glowing computer consoles. "We've gotta make sure we stay together, the Death Egg is way too easy to get lost in if we split up for any reason." the fox boy whispered.

"It'd be easier if we could see where we were going." Amy commented with her eyes squinted.

"We'd risk getting detected if we turned a light on, from the looks of things, we're in a section of the Death Egg that's either not currently in use, or isn't finished yet." Tails replied. "My guess is the latter, because if it were inactive, there probably wouldn't be any life support systems running around here."

"Let's just keep moving." Knuckles grumbled.

For a while, the team quietly moved towards what they hoped was the bridge of the Death Egg. But the lack of any activity was making everyone restless. "Doesn't this seem weird? You'd think we'd _at least_ see a patrol bot or something by now." Amy said with her hammer raised for a battle at the first sign of danger.

"For once I agree with her." Knuckles missed the annoyed glare Amy shot him. "If Eggman sent out that fleet of robot hawks, shouldn't that mean he knows we're here?"

"It's possible," Tails acknowledged. "But it also could've been a sort of proximity alert. Like if an intruder or object of _any_ kind gets too close, the Death Egg would automatically defend itself...but I agree, there's something strange about this." Tails stopped in front of a door and took a close look at his scanner. "If my scanner is reading this right, the power output is much higher beyond this door than it is here, which could mean one of two things."

"Do tell." Amy replied.

"One, we're about to reach a part of the Death Egg that is actually active, or two...we're about to face off against an army of Eggman robots...I couldn't tell you which though, there's something interfering with the scanner."

"Only one way to find out." Sonic got into a fighting stance and nodded towards Tails. "Do it."

Tails nodded back and used his codebreaker on the door, and just like before, moments later, the door opened. They were greeted by a room that was completely dark. "That's weird...maybe the interference is messing with the scanner worse than I thought." He was about to walk through when Sonic grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back.

"Think again." Moments later, dozens of pairs of glowing yellow lights suddenly filled up the room, illuminating the darkness enough to reveal exactly what they were. "Egg Pawns! It's a trap!" Sonic unleashed a spin dash and blasted through the robot hoard, and his friends followed him in and began taking care of the rest of the robots he might have missed after the initial strike.

"So much for stealth, let's just storm this place!" Knuckles leaped up and slammed his fists into the floor, and the resulting quake sent a large group of pawns flying helplessly into the air, where they were quickly destroyed by a homing attacking Sonic.

Amy meanwhile was busy swinging her hammer around and smashing robots with every swing. At one point she became surrounded, but she thought quickly and did a pirouette on her toe with her hammer spinning wildly and removing any robotic nuisances that dared to get too close. Once her attack was complete, she stopped spinning and used her hammer to propel herself into the air and land behind her foes, and she then threw her signature weapon into the fray and blew up a dozen more robots. "These guys are too easy." Amy smirked confidently as she caught her returning hammer in one hand.

"Not disagreeing, but stay sharp!" Sonic gave a hard roundhouse kick to one of the closest robots and sent it hurtling into one of its buddies, and then the blue hedgehog took a glance at Knuckles, who caught his eye and nodded at him. "Tails!"

Tails was busy sweeping the legs out from under a robot with his tails when Sonic made the call. He quickly disposed of the robot with another hard swipe, and then joined up with his friends. "Let's do it!"

"Alright!" Knuckles grinned and grabbed both Sonic and Tails, who had curled up into balls and were now being as used as weapons for the red echidna to utilize. "Might wanna get back Amy!" Knuckles waited until Amy managed to make a hole for herself to get through, and once she was far enough for his liking, the emerald guardian leaped into the air and threw both Sonic and Tails down to the ground. "Fire Dunk!" the resulting explosion from the two making contact with the ground caused a chain reaction that blew up the rest of the robot army, leaving them alone in the dark corridor once more.

Seeing as the danger was gone for the moment, Amy walked through the sparking debris field of the robots and met up with her teammates, her hammer slung casually over her shoulder. "Never did like that particular move, it always kinda hurt."

"Well you were getting _two_ hits for the price of _one."_ Sonic replied as he dusted himself off. "Big would smack you with his fishing pole _before_ you actually hit the target...dunno how you put up with that." he smirked at her playfully.

"I managed just fine, thank you very much." she smirked right back.

Tails however wasn't nearly as lighthearted. "That wasn't a random security detail." he said grimly. "The way those robots were organized, they were _ordered_ to intercept us here."

"So Eggman knows we're here, big deal! He was _gonna_ find out eventually anyway, and if this is the best he can do, then let's just finish this!" Knuckles rushed through the corridors before his friends could object, forcing them to follow as the red echidna began crashing through locked doors and setting off every alarm you could think of. Finally, Knuckles reached a particularly large door and began punching it down, creating dents in it with his oversized fists until it finally caved in under the onslaught. Once the way was unblocked, Knuckles jumped through the destroyed doorway and roared at the top of his lungs. "Eggman! Show yourself!"

By now the others had joined him, and the four heroes stood back-to-back with each other so they could watch each other's backs. Suddenly the lights turned on and nearly blinded them, and looking up, they saw their target standing on a balcony with his hands folded casually behind his back. Then another hoard of robots appeared, this army much larger than the previous one they fought in the hallways. "Welcome, Sonic Team." the evil doctor said with a chortle. "You're just in time for the end of the world."  
_

 **A/N: ...ACTION PACKED! Well, near the second half of the chapter anyway. The Sonic Team has grown up a bit, and Amy's become an official member of the team. Those who read the description of Amy's "adventure outfit" will likely recognize it as her Sonic Boom attire. I like the design, it makes her look more adventurous, I just plan on tying things together a bit better than Boom does so she's a more steady character, not random.**

 **So the team has stormed the Death Egg and run into some problems, will they be able to get out of this mess unscathed? You'll have to stay tuned to find out. If you read, please leave a review! I wanna know what my readers think of this so far!**


	4. Birth of Ba'Gan

**Welcome back to this epic tale of drama and action!**

 **"Where's the Sonamy?!"**

 **Ahem, yes...while this is indeed an epic tale of drama and action, it's also one filled with a certain amount of romance...but that won't be coming just yet. But don't you worry, it will happen eventually! I've got several couples in mind, some will be more expanded upon than others, some will be rather subtle. But first, we've got some more rock'em sock'em fighting scenes to get through! When we last left off, the Sonic Team had been caught off-guard by Eggman and surrounded by Egg Pawns. Now we see what happens after that.**

 **Also, thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter! PokeKing Charizard, sonamylikeduh (who technically reviewed Chapter 1 lol), johncc1993 and Yago. Your reviews are very much appreciated, I always enjoy seeing reviews in my inbox! Anyway, enough stalling. Enjoy!**

 **I own nothing except the story and Yukon "Houdini" the Sugar Glider. Aurora the Hedgehog belongs to E-vay  
_**

The four heroes glared at the evil scientist standing above them on a balcony. It was clear by the satisfied sneer on his face that he'd known about their intrusion all along, and they'd walked right into his trap. "Nothing to say?" he chortled. "I realize that my latest diabolical creation isn't exactly unique, but there are times when the _old_ ways truly are the _best_ ways."

"I'll give you old," Sonic relinquished a grim smirk. "But I have a hard time buyin' that whole 'best' crack."

"I would agree, which is why I've made some improvements and additions to my arsenal since my last attempt at this particular plot of mine." Eggman's sneer somehow grew more sinister. "For example, a sensor jammer designed to hide this magnificent fortress from being detected." the egg-shaped scientist looked right at Tails. "Isn't that right, fox boy?" Eggman chortled again when he saw that he'd prompted Tails to growl furiously at him.

Suddenly Orbot hovered into the room and floated up to Eggman's face. "Everything is in place!"

"Excellent!" Eggman looked back down at the surrounded Sonic Team and grinned maniacally at them. "As much as I'd love to continue lording my superiority over you four, I do have a schedule to keep. So then, any last words?"

"I've got one." Tails slowly reached into his tool belt and nodded discreetly at Sonic, and the fox boy saw in his peripheral vision that Sonic had nodded back at him. "JUMP!" The four leaped into the air just as the Egg Pawn army opened fire, and Tails pulled out a device shaped like a hurricane symbol and designed like his tails. He pressed the button in the middle and it began blinking red, then he threw it down to the ground and it exploded, scattering the robots below.

"You know the drill guys!" Sonic shouted. "Take 'em out fast and hard, same as always!" Dodging laser blasts the whole way, Sonic ran around a dozen robots and then rolled into a ball, the speed at which he was moving activated his Blue Tornado attack, which blew the robots into the air where Knuckles was waiting to destroy them with a powerful spinning Drill Claw attack.

Sonic then followed up by revving up for a spin dash, and as soon as Knuckles landed on him, he was propelled forward with his fists outstretched to crash into several more Egg Pawns, with Sonic joining him seconds later with his spin dash. They both skidded to a halt after the attacks were finished, but they were soon confronted by several more robots firing their lasers.

"Get down!"

Once they heard Tails shout at them, the two ducked as low as they could as another of Tails' hurricane bombs blew up the robots firing at them, giving them some much needed breathing room. "Thanks pal!" Sonic shot a quick thumbs-up to the fox boy - who returned the gesture - before rushing over to help Amy who was currently fighting off an army of robots all by herself. He crashed through the attacking hoard with another spin dash and stopped right in front of her. "Need a hand?" he asked with a playful wink.

The pink hedgehog just smirked. "As long as you're offering." Amy readied her hammer, and once Sonic rolled up into a ball, she swung as hard as she could and sent him careening into over two dozen more Egg Pawns, and the explosions they made after their destruction caused a small chain reaction. "Never fails!"

As the battle continued down below, Eggman was working at a rather leisurely pace on a computer console that was sitting next to the stasis tube that happened to contain the unconscious creature. "Hey boss, they're really making a mess down there, shouldn't we do something?" Cubot asked nervously.

"It's no matter." Eggman waved dismissively without even glancing at the yellow robot. "As soon as they're done with those hunks of junk, I've got a _new_ toy for them to play with."

"Oh, so...does that mean you're gonna show it to them now?"

"What?" Eggman looked up from the console and saw Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy standing there with triumphant smirks on their faces. "So, you've defeated the Egg Pawns."

"Like there was ever any doubt!" Sonic grinned.

"Indeed, which is why I have a _second_ line of defense, one that I'm sure you'll find _quite_ exhilarating." Eggman pushed a button on the console, and a door behind them opened up to reveal an all-too familiar looking machine. "Meet another of my latest creations: Metal Sonic 4.0."

"You've seen _one_ Metal Sonic, you've seen them all!" Sonic glanced at this friends. "Take five guys, I've got this one." Sonic ran to destroy the robotic imposter before it could even activate, but in just the blink of an eye, its red and soulless eyes flickered to life and the robot side-stepped Sonic's punch and unleashed its own roundhouse kick that sent Sonic flying into a wall. "That one didn't count." he growled and rubbed the back of his head where Metal Sonic's foot had made contact.

"My turn!" Knuckles charged with his fist reared back to strike, and the power that was put into his punch could be felt by the wind it generated. Unfortunately, the swing never made contact, as Metal Sonic easily side-stepped the punch and grabbed the red echidna's tail, then threw him into the wall where Sonic had just come from, slamming them both against it. "Now he's playing dirty!" Knuckles growled as he got up off of Sonic and glared at the robot.

"Whaddya say Knux? Double team?" Sonic glanced at the Emerald guardian.

Knuckles nodded at him. "You're on!" Together the two attacked. Sonic rushed forward again and this time stopped short to avoid Metal Sonic's retaliation; the two started trading punches and kicks in what appeared to be a frantically paced and deadly ballet. "Hey Robo-loser!" Metal Sonic stopped a moment to look up and saw Knuckles bearing down on him from above. "You want a piece of me?!" Knuckles slammed both his fists into the robot's body, and the impact sent even Sonic flying from how strong it was. "Hmmph." Knuckles smirked at the downed form of Metal Sonic. "Wuss."

"Knuckles, look out!" Amy shouted.

"What?" The red echidna had turned to walk away, but when he turned back again, he was quickly sent flying all the way across the large room by a lightning-fast punch, finally stopping when he slammed into the far wall which now had a Knuckles-shaped dent in it. The guardian groaned as his eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground below, unconscious from the hit.

"Knuckles!" Sonic scowled and turned to face the robot, whose only response was to just continue staring coldly at his organic counterpart. "I'm still not impressed!" Another spin dash by Sonic was dodged as the robot jumped up and retaliated with a two-legged strike that sent Sonic sliding against the ground painfully. "Uggggh." He looked up and saw Eggman grinning down at him.

"Something the matter?"

"Not at all." Sonic slowly got up and glared at the robot, who was once again merely standing there with that same emotionless gaze. "You've been busy Egghead, I'll give you that much."

"I'm so glad you noticed." The scientist chortled. "I've spared no expense with this plan."

"Glad to hear it," Sonic smirked grimly. "It'll make trashing this pile of scrap all the more worthwhile!" Sonic rushed forward again, but this time instead of attacking right away, he leaped high into the air and curled into a ball, then he blasted downward and slammed into Metal Sonic, bouncing him back into the air with his bounce. Then with a determined battle-cry, Sonic uncurled and unleashed a powerful axe kick that sent the robot hurtling back towards the ground. "Now Tails!"

"On it!" Tails ran forward and reached into his belt, and out of the largest pocket came what appeared to be a strange boxing glove attacked to a spring. "Energy Ball, fire!" the glove suddenly morphed into a cannon while on Tails' hand, and out of the barrel came a crackling orb of energy that struck the recovering Metal Sonic and sent Tails flying across the room as well. "Oh man..." he groaned and got back up. "Better make sure I fix the kickback on that old thing." Tails placed the device back in his pocket and shook his hand to try and get the feeling back in it.

When the robot finally landed, he didn't get a chance to recover as Knuckles had since regained consciousness and wasted no time in unleashing a powerful uppercut that sent the blue robot flying back up to the balcony where he came from. "Well, _I_ feel better now." the echidna said casually as he rubbed his fist.

Metal Sonic would've landed with a dull thud, but one final crushing blow in midair courtesy of Amy's hammer sent the robot slamming into the stasis tube, which now had a large crack in it thanks to the impact. "Well Eggman, you were right, that was quite exhilarating." the pink hedgehog said with her hammer slung over her shoulder.

For once, the egg-shaped scientist wasn't smiling. That had stopped the moment Metal Sonic formed small cracks in the glass of the stasis tube, luckily for him, they weren't severe enough to let loose any liquid. "It appears I've underestimated you four." he was about to continue when Orbot came rushing in with a very significant item held in his hand. "Ahh, excellent!" the evil grin returned as Eggman took the item and held it high. "Fortunately it no longer matters, now that you've so generously provided the final element I need to complete my scheme!"

"The Chaos Emerald!" Tails gaped before his face contorted into a vicious scowl. "Why that lousy, no good snake in the grass! He took the Chaos Emerald right out of the X-Tornado! He _messed with my plane!"_

"Oh don't be so melodramatic, it's not like _you_ haven't been destroying _my_ inventions for the past seven years." Eggman scoffed. "Besides, you have more pressing matters to deal with." Eggman placed the Chaos Emerald into a slot on the console, and it immediately disappeared and then reappeared above the stasis tube, where the other six Chaos Emeralds were situated in their own slots. "Now that all seven Chaos Emeralds are in place, I can finally proceed with my _greatest plan ever!"_

"Tails!"

At Sonic's order, Tails reached for another hurricane bomb and threw it at the stasis tube where the strange creature was floating motionlessly. But before the bomb could reach the glass, Metal Sonic suddenly revived and grabbed the bomb with his clawed hand, where it exploded without so much as making the robot flinch. "But how?!"

"Did I forget to mention that one of the upgrades I've installed is an accelerated recovery mode?" Eggman cackled maniacally. "And now if you'll excuse me, I have a universe to conquer!" he cackled again, and pushed up on a lever that activated the machine and caused the Chaos Emeralds to glow as their limitless energy was tapped into. "Yes, it's working!"

Electricity began to crackle around the machine, and the team watched in horror as the strange, almost gelatinous creature began to stir in the tube. "Whatever that thing is," Tails shouted over the increasing noise as he looked at his scanner. "It's coming to life!"

"Tails, Amy, you're gonna get one shot!" Sonic looked back at the two younger team members suddenly.

"W-What?!" Amy reeled back in shock. "What do you mean?!"

"You'll know what to do!" Sonic turned to the red echidna. "C'mon Knux!"

"Stop them Metal Sonic!" At the doctor's order, the robot engaged with the two powerhouses and held them back with a crackling field of electricity surrounding its body, rendering it untouchable.

Knuckles made an attempt to punch it, but the field shocked him and he let out a cry of pain when he made contact with Metal Sonic's body. He pulled his fist back and held his wrist in his other hand. "We can't get through that shield!"

"We don't have to!" Sonic grinned. "Now guys!"

Tails launched another hurricane bomb, and just like before, Metal Sonic intercepted it and allowed it to explode harmlessly in his hand. But in doing so, he allowed Amy to jump up and heave her hammer at the stasis tube, which shattered as soon as it was struck and spilled the viscous blue liquid all over the ground, and also caused the machine to explode and send the Chaos Emeralds flying all over the room as smoke filled the area.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Eggman fell to his knees in defeat as he saw that the grey, faceless creature was still apparently unconscious on the floor. "I was so close!" he pounded the floor with his fists in frustration.

"Um, boss?" Cubot tapped Eggman's shoulder.

"What is it?! Can't you see everything's ruined?!" the scientist snarled at the yellow robot.

"Oh, so...the thing _wasn't_ supposed to come back to life?"

"What?" Eggman turned to see that the alien being was twitching somewhat, giving the doctor a slight glimmer of hope. "Can it be?!"

After his ears stopped ringing, Tails sat up and held his head in one hand before reaching for his urgently beeping scanner. The readings he was getting caused the fox boy's eyes to widen in horror. "We're too late!"

As the smoke cleared, it became more and more visible that the creature was stirring, and it slowly got up, its faceless, grey form stood tall, motionless, as if it were frozen in place. All over its body were small splotches of black, and the only indicator of any sort of face was a red swirl right in the middle of where its face would be. "What _is_ that?" Amy asked in disgust.

Tails' scanner continued to beep madly, and the fox boy just shook his head in frustration. "These readings make no sense! I have _no idea_ what it is!"

"I've got a pretty good idea of what it is," Sonic readied himself to take off in a burst of speed. "It's something we can hit!" the blue hedgehog blasted forwards and unleashed a lightning-fast punch...that went right through the creature's body. "What the?!" Sonic pulled his fist back, and the hole that had been formed in the creature's body quickly disappeared as it was seemingly filled back in. "Didn't see that coming."

"Let _me_ try!" Amy leaped up and swung her hammer in midair, and a second later, a pink tornado formed and seemingly disassembled the strange alien before it dissipated into thin air. The pink hedgehog landed and admired her handiwork for a moment before turning her back on the scattered piles of ooze. "There, that wasn't so hard."

"Uh, Amy?"

Seeing that Tails was pointing behind her, Amy turned around and saw the ooze piles crawling back to each other and forming a much larger pile, which eventually reassembled back into the alien. "Ok...that's just gross."

"Are you quite through making fools of yourselves?" Eggman chortled at them. He had since gotten up and was now standing tall with his arms crossed over his chest with pride. "I must say, your determination is quite admirable. It's also a practice in futility."

"Quit wasting time puffing up your ego!" Knuckles growled. "You better start explaining yourself or you're gonna be sorry!"

"Somehow I find that scenario unlikely." Eggman glanced at Metal Sonic who was now standing still next to him and awaiting further orders. "But no matter," he turned back towards the heroes. "What you see before you is a creature known as an Incursite...it's also the key to all of my plans. The reign of Dr. Ivo Robotnik begins _now!"_

"Alright, I've had enough!" Sonic revved up a spin dash and blasted towards the creature once more, but this time he was intercepted by Metal Sonic, who gave him a sharp kick and knocked him out of his attack. He recovered smoothly but clenched his fists in frustration now that his robotic counterpart was once again barring his way. "That junk pile's getting on my nerves!"

"This is truly growing tiresome. Metal Sonic, take care of these pests so that we may proceed." Eggman said casually.

With the order given, Metal Sonic's body suddenly began to glow with a red outline, and out of the turbine in its chest came several red particles that rapidly began forming in an all-too familiar shape. "Guys...according to my scanner...that's..." Tails looked up and gaped in horror, along with the rest of his friends who were just as shocked.

There was now a second, red Metal Sonic standing in front of the original blue one.

"It would appear my latest improvement is working perfectly." Eggman rubbed his palms together. "I must say I'm _especially_ proud of this one, the self-replicating system was not easy to program and install, the generation of hardened photons is a very complicated process, let me tell you. Of course, being the true genius that I am, it was only a matter of time before I got it working."

"Sonic, I hate to say it," Amy glanced over at the speedy blue hero. "But this is quickly getting out of control, if we don't find a way to stop Eggman fast, we'll be overwhelmed!"

Sonic didn't respond. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he knew Amy was right. This newest version of Metal Sonic had already proven tougher than all of its predecessors, and this new and seemingly untouchable creature Eggman had dubbed an Incursite was a complete mystery, and there seemed to be very little time to solve it. Sonic was about to rev up for another attack when he caught something sparkling in his peripheral vision.

A Chaos Emerald.

"That's it..." Sonic turned to his friends, and they nodded at him in response as they each prepared to attack. "Amy, you hang back." he said.

"What?" Amy scowled. "Oh you are _not_ about to bench me _again!"_

"No Amy," Sonic scowled back at the accusation. "Tails, Knuckles and I will hold off Eggman, _you've_ gotta go around and gather the Chaos Emeralds!"

Amy's eyes widened in realization, and she then adopted a determined expression and nodded at him. "Got it."

Nodding back, Sonic turned to Eggman who was clearly enjoying seeing him and his friends on the ropes. "Alright Eggman, I'll give you credit, you've really got something going here..." Sonic flashed his signature confident smile. "But if you think we're gonna back down, you're wrong again! Come on guys, let's show 'em what we're made of!"

All three of the heroes charged, and Eggman barked out his own attack order, and the two Metal Sonics created more replicas and advanced on their opponents, and began attacking furiously, giving the heroes a workout like they'd never had before. "Now then, where was I?"

While the three men fought, Amy had jumped down to the floor below and started searching for the scattered emeralds. It hadn't taken long for her to gather four of them as they were practically in plain sight. Unfortunately, upon picking up her fourth emerald, she was confronted by a Metal Sonic replica. "Uh oh." she dropped the emeralds and reached for her hammer, but she was knocked to the ground by a sweep kick before she could react, and the red robot then picked her up by her throat and held her up. "Let me go you-hrrrk!"

Sonic had heard the sound of distress coming from the floor below, and after delivering a roundhouse kick that sent a red replica crashing into a wall, he looked down and saw another replica choking Amy who appeared to be trying desperately to break free. "Amy!" The blue hedgehog gave a break-dancing kick to a charging replica and then leaped down and slammed into the offending robot's head with his foot, destroying the hard light construct and forcing it to release Amy, who was now clutching her throat and gasping for air. "You ok Ames?"

Unable to speak, Amy nodded and held out her free hand with her index finger raised, indicating for him to wait. Then she finally got up and retrieved her hammer and the four Chaos Emeralds. "The rest should be around here somewhere." she rasped.

"Stay put, I'll find the rest!" Sonic zoomed around the room before the pink hedgehog could object, and moments later he had six Chaos Emeralds in his arms. "The last one's up there! As soon as I get my hands on it, this battle's over!"

"Sonic, wait!" she reached her hand out for him, but her raspy voice failed to get Sonic's attention, as the blue hero had already leaped back onto the floor above. "Something doesn't seem right."

When he landed, he saw that Tails and Knuckles were moments away from being overwhelmed by the increasing number of Metal Sonic replicas. "Hang on guys, I'm comin' for ya!" he ran for where he'd seen the last Chaos Emerald, but when he reached there, he looked up and saw the Incursite staring down at him. "When'd _you_ decide to stop being a statue?" The alien didn't respond, but what it did do was raise its arm, and the result of that was Sonic being covered in grey and black goo that covered him from head to toe as it seemed to shoot out of the creature's hand. "That's _nasty!_ What'd you do, _sneeze_ on me or something?!"

"Yes! The plan is almost complete!"

Sonic turned his head and saw Eggman standing there with his most maniacal grin of the night, and his friends were behind him and being held down by Metal Sonic and his five remaining red replicas. His friends had clearly put up a good fight. "So your plan was to tar and feather me?" Sonic shook his head to get some of the gunk off of him and frowned. "It'd be pretty embarrassing to run around Mobius looking like a giant chicken for a while, but that's not exactly an evil 'takeover-the-world' kind of plan now is it?"

But then the scanner by Tails' feet began blaring alarms of every kind, trying desperately to relay the information it was picking up. Unfortunately, Tails was indisposed and any move he made to try and grab it was rewarded by a powerful electric shock courtesy of the original Metal Sonic's sharp claws. "What are you up to Eggman? Why's my scanner going crazy?"

"You'll see momentarily." Eggman watched with glee as the ooze covering Sonic's body suddenly absorbed into him, and the Incursite suddenly collapsed and turned into a lifeless puddle on the ground.

"So much for _that_ plan, heh heh." Suddenly Sonic's eyes drooped, and the blue hedgehog staggered back and held his head in his hand. "Whoa."

"Sonic, what's wrong?!" Tails exclaimed.

"Feeling kinda lightheaded..." Sonic fought to stay up, but he could sense his thoughts were beginning to grow cloudy, and the blue hedgehog went down on his hands and knees as his breathing became increasingly laborious. "Not...feeling...so good..." he said in-between gasps.

By this time, Amy had used her hammer to propel herself back up to the balcony, and as soon as she saw Tails and Knuckles being held down, she threw her hammer at the hard light constructs and they vanished into thin air. When she finally landed, she caught her hammer and swung it at the original Metal Sonic, who was unprepared for the attack and was slammed into the wall behind him, he then crumpled to the ground afterwards. "You guys ok?!"

Knuckles nodded and rubbed his arm, but Tails didn't bother to even acknowledge her. The moment he'd been set free, he rushed over and grabbed his scanner, which was continuously collecting data which the fox boy now had to try and make sense out of. As he continued to read the information, his eyes widened in horror. "No!" he looked up from his scanner and over at Sonic, who at this point seemed to be in agony as he hugged himself and tried to resist whatever was happening to him.

Seeing that Sonic was in turmoil, Amy made her hammer disappear and she rushed over to kneel down and embrace the blue hedgehog. "Sonic, it's gonna be ok! We'll find a way to stop whatever's hurting you!" Suddenly Sonic seemed to give a long exhale and he stopped struggling, and the pink hedgehog felt Sonic's body relax substantially. "There ya go, see? All you needed was a patented Amy Rose hug." she whispered comfortingly.

"Amy...back away from there, _slowly..."_ Tails said with a wavering voice.

Amy just turned her head to face the fox boy and rolled her eyes. "Oh relax, Sonic doesn't mind, right Sonic?"

"Not at all."

It took only a second for Amy to realize that the voice that had just come from Sonic's mouth may have sounded like Sonic, but it wasn't really him.

It sounded sinister.

"Sonic?!" Before she could react, she was thrown away and would've crashed into the wall, but Knuckles had jumped up and caught her before she could make impact. She was gently put down, and Amy watched anxiously as Sonic's body turned to face them. When his eyes opened, the usual hue of lime-green had completely disappeared.

Instead they were glowing red with unbridled rage.

Amy turned to face Eggman and snarled at him. "What did you _do_ to him?!"

Eggman didn't have to respond, as Sonic - or rather whatever was in Sonic's body - began to laugh boisterously as he looked at his own body with interest. "What a primitive creature I've been forced to inhabit. If the Elder ever laid eyes upon me, he would demand I have myself executed." it clenched Sonic's fists as if gauging the power his body had. "However, as the apparent saying goes, desperate times, desperate measures."

"Who are you?" Tails asked.

The creature in control of Sonic's body looked over at the young fox and grinned. However, this grin looked incredibly out of place on Sonic's face. It was a grin of pure evil. "You wish to know who I am? Very well, I shall grant your life's last request." the creature walked over to the remaining heroes who tensed upon seeing the form of their friend staring through them with those soulless red eyes which had overridden his green ones. "My name is Ba'Gan, and I have come to lay waste your world."  
_

 **A/N: So...yeah...Sonic's down for the count. And now we see the beginning of Ba'Gan. So now the question is, were Aurora and the others really too late? How will the team ever get Sonic back now that Ba'Gan has taken over Sonic's body? You'll find out more in the next chapter!**

 **The history of the Incursites will be made much more clear in later chapters, but for right now, Ba'Gan is a mystery, one that - hopefully - you want to uncover as time goes on. Anyways, next chapter we'll see more of what the team plans to do about Sonic, and we'll also check back in with Blaze, Silver, Aurora and the others. PLEASE review! For a story like this, I could really use some feedback! See you all next time!**


	5. Blast from the Past - or Present

**A/N: Welcome to another chapter of "A Light in Darkness", boy I'm just blowing through these chapters aren't I? I think it helps that I already have the general plot in mind, it's just a matter of putting it together. I won't lie, Aurora is a big part of why this seems to be going so quickly. I love her character and I'm so grateful to E-vay for letting me use her. If you haven't checked out her Tumblr account yet to get a good look at who Aurora is from the creator's own imagination, I question what you're waiting for. I'd leave a link for you guys but ya know...they don't allow that here.**

 **So before we get started, I'd like to thank the reviewers from last chapter. Huge thanks to Yago, Emeraldalex123 and sonamylikeduh for their reviews, they're always much appreciated! And to address something Yago asked, this is three years from the time of canon. So take everyone's canon ages and add three. e.g. Amy's canon age is 12, so here she's 15...so no, Aurora won't be born for a long while yet.**

 **Anyways, when we last left off, Ba'Gan had just taken control of Sonic's body, and now the Sonic Team has to deal with their friend and leader being used against them by an alien whose intentions are clearly evil. So without further ado, enjoy the latest chapter! I own nothing except the story and Yukon "Houdini" the Sugar Glider. Aurora the Hedgehog belongs to E-vay. (Seriously, go check out her Tumblr, you won't be disappointed)  
_**

There are times in life when you see or hear something that has you completely numb and in shock, something so utterly impossible to believe that when you see it actually happened, you're left frozen in place and speechless. For Tails, Knuckles and Amy, that time was now.

Their leader and friend, Sonic the Hedgehog, had just been turned against them.

"I can't believe this is happening." Amy held her head in-between her palms and shook it woefully. "Sonic _can't_ just be... _gone."_

Ignoring the heroes completely, Eggman walked over to Ba'Gan, who immediately tensed upon seeing the scientist approach him. "Ah, no need to be alarmed." Eggman said. "I am the man responsible for your rebirth."

"Oh are you?" Ba'Gan crossed his new arms and scoffed. "If this host's memories are anything to go by, you're an old fool whose pitiful attempts at world domination are beyond laughable. I find it rather difficult to believe that _you_ are the one responsible for my resurrection."

"He's got a point there boss!" Cubot exclaimed.

"Silence you imbecile!" Eggman glared at the yellow robot who retreated back into his own body. The doctor then turned back to Ba'Gan. "Those memories aren't an accurate depiction of who I really am. They're all jaundiced accounts I assure you." Eggman smirked. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Dr. Ivo Robotnik, the _greatest_ scientific genius in all the known universe, and I've gone through a lot of trouble to bring you back to life."

"I see." Ba'Gan raised an eyebrow. "And for what purpose did you commit this gracious act of charity?"

"It's quite simple really, I have plans to conquer the universe, and now that you've taken care of my little rodent problem, you and I will work together to bring the universe to its knees!" Eggman exclaimed with a dramatic flair.

Ba'Gan just scoffed and turned to leave. "I have no use for the likes of you, you and all of creation will soon be mine to do with as I please."

"Very well." Eggman shrugged and turned around as well. "Of course, I find it difficult to believe that you'll even be able to find a way off this station without _my_ help."

Ba'Gan stopped. "And why is that?" he asked without turning around.

Eggman's glasses gleamed. "Simple. Your host's friends won't be willing to let you escape." he turned to the furious heroes. "Isn't that right Sonic Team?"

"I hate it when he's right." Knuckles growled.

"Tails, what do we do?" Amy asked with a desperate expression on her face. "We can't just let that thing take Sonic from us!"

"We won't." Tails looked up at Knuckles. "I know you and Sonic usually wind up pretty evenly-matched whenever you spar, but I need you to take on...Ba'Gan, and knock him out so we can find a way to bring Sonic back!"

"If it's a fight you want me to put up, then you got it!" Knuckles wasted no time rushing forward and unleashing a mighty punch that sent Ba'Gan flying across the room. "Alright you slime, let's dance!"

With Knuckles taking on Ba'Gan, Amy and Tails turned to face off against Metal Sonic, but was shocked to find that not only was Metal Sonic not attacking, he didn't even seem interested. And neither did his creator for that matter. "Eggman's...not ordering him to attack?" Amy tilted her head in confusion.

Tails smacked his forehead with his palm. "Of course he's not, he _wants_ Ba'Gan to lose to Knuckles to prove he needs his help." the fox boy pounded his forehead with the side of his fist over and over. "I'm really getting tired of playing right into his hands." Tails then looked around the room and saw the pile of leftover ooze Ba'Gan's previous form had left behind. "Maybe there's something I can learn from that stuff. Cover me Amy."

"Got it."

When Tails went over to analyze the sample of Ba'Gan's original body, Orbot tapped the working doctor on the shoulder. "Eh...boss?"

"What is it now? Can't you see I'm busy with-" Eggman spotted Tails using his scanner on Ba'Gan's leftovers. "Oh no you don't! Metal Sonic, eviscerate them!"

Immediately the robot came to life and charged towards Tails, but Amy managed to trip up the robot by holding out her hammer low to the ground and letting it trip over the handle. The result was Metal Sonic crashing into the short glass wall of the balcony and falling to the ground below after the glass shattered. "Next time watch where you're going."

"That's playing dirty." Tails smirked at the pink hedgehog before getting back to work, and he took a small microscope slide and used an eye dropper to slurp up some of the ooze and place it on the slide. "This is enough to make you wanna hurl." Tails gagged a moment and placed the sample into a slot in the side of his scanner, and immediately the computer got to work on analyzing the remains of the evil creature's original body. "Analyzing now, let's hope Knuckles can hold Ba'Gan off long enough for me to get a good reading."

Suddenly a laser beam went off, scorching the ground next to Tails and Amy's feet, and the two jumped back and saw Eggman pressing several keys on what was left of his control panel, and then they looked up and saw numerous laser blasters hanging from the ceiling, all aiming at them. "I think he means business!" Amy exclaimed as she ducked to dodge another blast.

"Yow!" Tails barely got out of the way of another blast by tilting his head ever-so-slightly. "What was your _first_ clue?!" Another few blasts caused them to separate and begin running around the room trying to keep out of the laser sights of the Death Egg's defense system.

Meanwhile down below, Knuckles and Ba'Gan were trading blows and trying to get the upper hand on each other. "Gotta say, I'm surprised how easy this is!" Knuckles easily dodged the pedestrian kick Ba'Gan launched before reeling his fist back and clocking the alien being in the side of his head with a punch that knocked him to the ground. "If I were fighting Sonic," he stood over Ba'Gan and cracked his knuckles. "This would be a _lot_ tougher!" the emerald guardian picked up the helpless form of Sonic and unloaded a vicious uppercut that sent him flying back up to the balcony. "No cont-aargh!" Knuckles was suddenly knocked off his feet by a laser blast courtesy of Metal Sonic, who clearly didn't appear happy after being humiliated by Amy. "Oh great."

As for Ba'Gan, he inadvertently took out the blasters by crashing into them before he wound up hitting a wall and falling to the ground, groaning in pain as he tried to get up. Eggman walked over to the alien and shook his head in disappointment. "My my, that won't do at all." he clicked his tongue at Ba'Gan. "You simply have _no idea_ how to utilize Sonic's strengths and abilities. At this rate, your new life will end before it ever truly has a chance to _begin."_

Ba'Gan found the willpower to force Sonic's battered body back onto its feet. His battle with Knuckles had not been pleasant. "Do not patronize me you prattling fool," he glared at Eggman. "If you have a solution then I demand you give it to me!"

"You're in no position to make demands." the doctor smirked evilly. "However, I would be willing to offer an ally some assistance...provided he agrees to become my ally."

Ba'Gan got into a wobbly fighting stance and stared down Tails and Amy, who had since caught their breath after their perilous adventure with the Death Egg's automatic security measures. "I do not need your charity." he growled. But then Ba'Gan fell to one knee and groaned, as his new body began to rebel from the strain. "Very well Doctor...it would appear that I have no choice...I will accept your help."

"Excellent." Eggman sneered and snapped his fingers, and moments later Orbot and Cubot hovered over with the Chaos Emeralds in their arms.

"No! Give those back!" Amy charged and got ready to swing her hammer, but she was suddenly blindsided by Metal Sonic, who stood over her and stepped on her head to keep her from getting up. "Lemme go you hunk of junk!" she struggled to get back up, but Metal Sonic's robot strength was too much for her to overcome.

Upon seeing Metal Sonic arrive, Tails rushed over to the edge of the balcony and saw Knuckles laying on the ground, struggling to use his arm to push himself back up. "Knuckles!" Tails flew down and helped the guardian stand, and was forced to offer support as Knuckles hunched over and groaned. "You alright?"

"Fighting Ba'Gan was easy, but that robot has Sonic's speed and almost my strength." the echidna grumbled. "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing yet, but if we don't do something now, it'll be too late to do much of _anything!"_ Tails flew up to the balcony with Knuckles in tow, but upon landing, his eyes widened in horror at what he was seeing. "Oh no!"

The downed heroes watched as the Chaos Emeralds swirled around Ba'Gan, whose red eyes were closed as the energy flowed directly into his body and strengthened him. "Yes...I can feel the power!" his eyes opened and a maniacal grin appeared on his face as he rose into the air. "Prepare to meet your doom, heroes, for I am invincible!" With a flash of light bright enough to blind everyone, Ba'Gan took on the form of Super Sonic, his red eyes now even more menacing as they seemed to pulse with energy.

"This is really, _really_ bad." Tails gulped.

"There's gotta be a way to get to Sonic, some way to get him to fight back!" Knuckles said desperately.

Amy's eyes widened at that, Knuckles had just given her an idea. Using all the strength she had left, she managed to get just enough leverage so she could push herself up enough to be able to turn her head towards Ba'Gan before Metal Sonic applied more pressure and nearly cracked her skull between his foot and the floor. "Sonic! I know you're in there somewhere! Please, you've gotta fight this!" Suddenly Metal Sonic began applying even more pressure, and Amy let out a pained yelp as her head started feeling like it was in an ever-tightening vice.

"Get off her!" Knuckles ran to help the pink hedgehog who was futilely swinging her arms to try and get Metal Sonic off of her, but the emerald guardian was intercepted by the sudden appearance of a red Metal Sonic replica, who punched him down to the ground and stood over him menacingly. "Sonic, fight back!"

"Come on Sonic, I know you can beat him!" Tails added on to the encouragement.

"Oh spare me your pitiful attempts at bringing your friend back to the surface. I have never lost control of a host before, and I don't plan on starting now. I..." Ba'Gan looked down at Amy and his eyes widened, then he grabbed his head and screamed at the top of his lungs as a massive headache suddenly hit him.

"Doctor, what's happening?" Orbot asked worriedly.

Eggman scowled. "It's Sonic."

When the screaming stopped, eyes opened, and revealed that the red in those eyes were no longer of the sinister variety. Instead, they were filled with genuine concern. "Amy!" Now back in control, Sonic charged an energy blast and fired a large ball of chaos energy that knocked Metal Sonic right off of Amy, and also managed to take out the solid light construct that was assaulting the weakened Knuckles. "Guys, what's happening to-aaaaarrrrggh!" Sonic grabbed his head as the pain returned. "No...I won't...I won't..."

Another scream, and Sonic's body went limp and floated in the air as such for a moment before returning to normal. The eyes opened, and the pulsing red energy had returned. "Relinquish control." Ba'Gan frowned and looked down at the heartbroken Sonic Team. "I salute your friend, Sonic Team." the monster said seriously. "No host has ever had enough willpower to resist my control for even the slightest of moments. I assure you, it won't happen again."

"You're wrong!" Amy pointed an accusing finger. "Sonic will _never_ give up! He'll fight you _forever_ if he has to, that's just who he is." Amy lowered her arm and bowed her head slightly. "It's part of the reason I love him." she said that last part too quietly for it to be audible to anyone else, but thinking on it buoyed her spirits somewhat as she regained her fire and glared at Ba'Gan. "I know Sonic better than anyone, and if there's one thing I know for sure, he'll fight for freedom to the death! So you better believe he will beat you eventually!"

"Amy?"

The pink hedgehog beamed when she heard Sonic's voice emerge from his body, but it was short-lived as Ba'Gan shook Sonic's head and snarled. "Submit to my will you insufferable rat!" he seemed to shout to himself.

"Never!"

As the two personalities fought for control of the one body, everyone watched in fascination as the battle took place, with Sonic's body jerking in all directions in midair as Sonic and Ba'Gan continued to alternate control over each other. "What's going on Tails?" Knuckles looked down at the young genius.

Instead of answering, Tails ran over to Amy who was watching the form of her beloved Sonic have spasms as the battle for control raged on. "Amy, you got through to him! Do you know what this means?" Tails got a shake of her head in response. "It means that Sonic really _is_ still in there, and there's hope we can bring him back!"

"Hate to spoil the mood, but look!" Knuckles pointed up at the golden form of Super Sonic, and with a determined roar, Ba'Gan finally regained control of Sonic's body. "Clearly I haven't regained my full strength, that is the only explanation for this continual resistance to my control."

"In that case, I suggest we leave while we can," Eggman ran over to Ba'Gan with Orbot and Cubot rushing after him. "I can help you eliminate Sonic's resistance and allow you to take full control of his body, but first we'll have to get out of here. Use the power of the Emeralds, teleport us to the hangar bay where my Egg Carrier is being held!"

Ba'Gan stared the doctor down for a moment before finally nodding. "Very well." Ba'Gan raised his arm, and seconds later he and Eggman - along with his two cronies - vanished without a trace.

"They used Chaos Control!" Knuckles exclaimed. "But how?"

"Ba'Gan has Sonic's memories, and the longer he stays in control of Sonic's body, the more he'll learn how to use his powers." Tails reasoned. Suddenly an explosion went off that rumbled the whole room and nearly caused the team to lose their footing.

"What's happening?!" Amy shouted.

Tails ran over to the computer console and saw a ticking countdown on the screen, which caused the fox boy's eyes to widen in fear. "Eggman activated the self-destruct sequence on the way out!" Tails jumped down from the balcony and ran for the door, and he motioned for his other two friends to follow. "Come on! We've gotta get to the X-Tornado before the whole place blows!"

Knuckles and Amy didn't need any more coaxing. The two leaped down as well and followed Tails through the darkened corridors where more explosions seemed to be going off behind them as they ran. "There's the plane!" Knuckles pointed at the X-Tornado which could be seen through the open hangar bay door. Once they got through, they wasted no time in starting the plane and preparing for takeoff, Knuckles of course had perched himself on the wing. "Egg Carrier's gone, looks like Eggman bolted after all!"

"Tails, will this thing fly without the Chaos Emerald?" Amy leaned up from her seat and glanced worriedly at Tails.

Tails continued to pull levers and twist knobs as he got his plane going. "It'll be able to maintain normal speed for approximately an hour without the Chaos Emerald directly powering it thanks to its energy reserves, and that's _more_ than enough time to get us back to Mobius." he replied. "Now sit back, we're outta here!" Tails pulled the left yoke back and the X-Tornado blasted forwards just seconds before a huge explosion destroyed the hangar bay.

"We made it!" Knuckles pumped a fist in celebration.

"Don't celebrate yet, when the Death Egg blows altogether, we need to be out of range of the shockwave!" Tails looked down at his dashboard where a clock he'd set was ticking down. "Five...four...three...two..." the team braced themselves. "One!"

A huge explosion was heard, and the flash forced them to look away and shield their eyes. "I can't believe Eggman would just destroy his own-" Knuckles cut himself off, as he lowered his hand away from his face and stared in disbelief at what he saw. "The Death Egg's still there!" he looked back at his friends and pointed behind him.

Tails activated a rearview camera with a push of a small button, and sure enough, Eggman's enormous fortress had apparently been left unharmed. "He thought of everything." the fox boy growled to himself before he turned around in his seat to face his friends. "Now I know why those corridors we went through were shut down, Eggman rigged them for a contained self-destruct that would chase us out of here in case he needed to escape."

"But why bother?" Amy asked.

"He probably figured he'd be able to use it again in the future. I can't imagine he'd spend years building it and then just blow it up."

Knuckles clenched a fist. "Then let's take it out ourselves! You can rig it to self-destruct for real!"

"Are you crazy?!" Amy whipped her head around and gave the echidna a death glare to end all death glares. "Sonic needs our help! We can't waste any time!"

"It wouldn't be a waste!" Knuckles contested. "If we blow up the Death Egg _now,_ then we won't have to worry about it coming back to bite us _later!"_

"And if we _don't_ help Sonic _now,_ we may not be able to at all!"

"Guys!" Tails threw his hands up for a moment and glared at his two teammates, instantly silencing them. He turned back to the planet below and weighed out the pros and cons of both plans, and once he made up his mind, his brow furrowed with determination and he activated the X-Tornado's boosters. "Hang on tight guys, we're gonna go save Sonic!"

While Knuckles sighed and smacked his face with his palm, Amy jumped out of her seat and leaned forward to embrace the young pilot. "Oh thank you, thank you Tails!"

"I just know we're gonna regret this." Knuckles sighed and held on tight as the X-Tornado increased its speed, hurtling back towards Mobius on its mission to save the planet's greatest hero.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

From the moment they had seen the X-Tornado take off, the small band of future (and one other-dimension) dwellers felt a sensation resembling their hearts dropping into their stomachs. Aurora especially had begun to let her anxiety get to her, as she'd spent the previous twenty minutes pacing back and forth, mumbling to herself in worry while Yukon tried to calm her down. While that was going on, Blaze was discussing what to do next with her teammates. "Perhaps we should attempt to contact Rouge over at G.U.N. and see if she can't give us some information, she always seems to know something about whatever's going on."

"You wanna call _her?"_ Sticks wrinkled her nose at the thought. "I never understood how she could do her job with her obsession with shiny body decorations."

"You mean...jewelry?" Silver asked slowly.

"Whatever you wanna call it, it's a total waste of time."

Blaze closed her eyes and sighed. _"How in the name of Sol did Shadow deal with these people?"_ she shook her head and focused once more on her team. "I don't know what she does in _your_ time, but here in _my_ time, Rouge is a valuable G.U.N. agent and she has access to information we might find useful."

"Why can't we just go in there?" Sticks pointed a thumb in the direction of Tails' lab.

"Because it's locked." Blaze deadpanned and shook her head again. She hadn't been the leader for long, but she was already beginning to lose it, Sticks wasn't making things easy for her sanity. "Hey Yukon, you got her calmed down yet?"

The sugar glider shrugged helplessly and shook his head at the cat girl. "She doesn't even seem to hear me!" he turned to the pacing Aurora once more. "Aurora, everything's gonna be ok, please just calm down and let's make a new plan." his gentle statement didn't even get an acknowledgement from the pink hedgehog, and he shrugged again at Blaze. "Nothing."

"That's because you're doing it wrong." Sticks stretched out her arms and cracked her knuckles. "Here's how you handle this." Sticks walked up to Aurora and watched her pace for a few moments, then she stepped in her way, and slapped the pink hedgehog across the face. "Aurora! Snap out of it!" she screeched.

The group stared wide-eyed at what they had just seen. They already knew that Sticks didn't exactly do subtle, but even they weren't expecting that. Meanwhile, Aurora had stopped in her tracks and blinked a few times, rubbing at the spot where Sticks had slapped her. "Sticks...I..."

"Now you listen up! We didn't come all the way out here just so you could give yourself a heart attack and die before you even had the chance to be born!" the jungle badger screeched with a finger right in Aurora's face. "We've got a mission to complete and we need you to woman up and help us! So _do it!"_

She blinked a couple more times before slowly turning her head so she could look at her other teammates, who still looked stunned by what they'd just seen. "Right." she mumbled. Taking a deep breath, Aurora stood tall and steeled herself once more, nodding at her best friend with a determined expression. "Thanks Sticks, I needed that."

"Eh, not a problem." Sticks waved a hand dismissively. "Someone's gotta make sure you don't lose yourself to your own paranoia and go horribly insane."

Silver discreetly leaned over to whisper in Blaze's ear. "She's one to talk." that was answered by a harsh elbow in his side. "Ow!"

Aurora and Sticks walked over to the rest of the group, who had since recovered and were now looking at her expectantly. "Sorry about that guys." she scratched the back of her neck sheepishly.

"No worries," Silver flashed a grin. "So now that we're all ready to go, what's the plan? We gonna go find what's-her-name?"

"Wait, what?" Aurora tilted her head curiously.

Sticks rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Our fearless leader wants us to find your aunt and ask for help."

The pink hedgehog let that sink in for a moment, mumbling names to herself until her head shot back up and her eyes widened in realization. "You wanna go and ask my Aunt Rouge for help?!"

"It's _one_ course of action we might take, I'm open to other possibilities." Blaze responded calmly. "Although I fail to understand why this is such a big deal, the Rouge that _I_ know may not be the most _generous_ person in the universe, but she's not one to stand on the sidelines when the world is at stake."

"You'd be right about that." Aurora nodded. "Still, I think it'd be easier if I just got us in Uncle Tails' lab and we can use his equipment to find what we're looking for. Would save time too."

"You know how to get us in there?" Silver pointed his thumb behind him.

Aurora shrugged. "Sure. Uncle Tails has had a voice recognition security system since before I was born, he programmed the computer to recognize my voice and let me in whenever I wanted." she smiled. "He also programmed the computer to let me play all my favorite computer games once it knew I was there." she shook her head and chuckled a bit. Now was not the time for reminiscing. "Don't worry, I'll get us in there, no problem." The pink hedgehog confidently marched over to the front door of the lab and pressed the button on the speaker hanging on the wall next to the door, completely oblivious to Silver's attempts to get her attention. "Computer, voice recognition: Aurora the Hedgehog, confirm."

"Access denied!" the computer voice beeped angrily at her.

"Say what?" Aurora made an insulted face and pressed the button again. "Computer, voice recognition: Aurora the Hedgehog, confirm!"

"Access denied!"

"You stupid piece of-" she sucked in air through her teeth and clenched her fists by her sides. "Computer...voice recognition: Aurora the Hedgehog, confirm. And if the next words out of your voicebox aren't 'access granted' I will rip this speaker out of the wall and throw it through the window so we can get in that way, it wouldn't be the first time Uncle Tails has had to fix it!"

"Threat detected, activating security protocol, summoning guard."

"What are you _talking_ about?! Computer it's me, Aurora!"

Out of the speaker suddenly came a small laser. "Move!" the pink hedgehog was saved from being vaporized on the spot by Silver, who had yanked her out of danger using his psychokinesis. Once out of range, he released her from his hold and looked at her in disbelief. "I was trying to tell you! This is the past, the computer couldn't have _possibly_ been programmed to recognize you, you won't even be _born_ until a few _years_ from now!"

Aurora blinked, and that's when what Silver said clicked in her mind. "Oh yeah...well, that explains a lot."

"Um, guys? I have a question." Yukon said as he looked over in the direction of the lab. "Mind telling me what's up with that robot?"

The group looked, and they saw a black, yellow, and grey robot about their size with blue eyes with red rims, and it appeared to have several sharp blade-like objects attached to its arms, legs and head. "You've got a lotta nerve trying to break into Tails' lab!" the robot said with its synthetic voice, pointing an accusing metal finger at them. "Now you're gonna have to deal with _me!"_

"Uh oh." Both Blaze and Aurora said simultaneously.

"What uh oh?" Silver got the answer to his question when the robot suddenly rolled into a ball and slammed into him at high speed, knocking him back a few feet and also knocking the wind right out of him. "Oh, _that_ uh oh." he strained.

"Back off robot!" Sticks leaped up in the air twirling her bow staff above her head, and she slammed it down on the robot's head...and was rewarded with a reverb that caused even her teeth to shake in her mouth. "W-e-e-ell th-a-a-a-a-a-t didn't w-o-o-o-rk!" before she could recover, the robot struck again, this time with a mighty left hook that sent Sticks flying backwards, right into Silver who had just gotten up seconds earlier.

"Who else wants some?!" the robot got into a fighting pose and stared Aurora down. "How 'bout you?!"

"Oh geez, he doesn't recognize me." Aurora backed up a few steps with her hands in a placating gesture.

"I'll handle this." Blaze stepped up and that got the robot's attention as it prepared to attack. "Cool it Gemerl! It's me!"

The robot seemed to freeze for a moment. "Blaze?" it took a few more moments for the robot to get out of its fighting stance. "What are _you_ doing here?"

Before the cat girl could answer, someone else arrived. "Gemerl, what's the matter?!" the figure landed, and its eyes widened upon seeing Blaze standing in front of the robot. "Blaze?"

"Hello Cream."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It didn't take long for Blaze to sort out the misunderstanding, and it took even less time for the group of heroes to be given access to the lab once the situation was explained...partly anyway. "Why exactly aren't we telling your aunt we're from the future?" Sticks whispered with a raised eyebrow as she stood next to her best friend who was sitting on an empty work bench. "Is it because she's actually a spy for Eggman in this time period or something?"

"No Sticks." Aurora sighed. "Silver explained it to me a while back, he seems to be the resident expert on time travel." she said as she waved a hand dismissively. "We have to be careful that we don't let anyone we meet in this time period know we're from the future, it could be catastrophic to the time stream." the pink hedgehog turned her head to look at the young rabbit tending to Silver's minor wounds. "Imagine if Auntie Cream ever found out I was her niece, that could clue her in that she married Uncle Tails, and she might freak out and then that might affect the future in ways we never intended."

Seems like a bunch of baloney to me." Sticks crossed her arms. "Silver is so paranoid, it's crazy! He needs to relax, not everything in life is a conspiracy."

Aurora smirked and gave her friend a side-eye look. "You're one to talk."

"My conspiracies are based on fact, not theory." Sticks chose to ignore Aurora rolling her eyes at her. "It's just unnatural...I mean, look how young she is!" she gestured both arms in Cream's direction, who was blissfully unaware of the conversation taking place about her as she bandaged Silver's arm.

"It's funny you think you have to point that out to me." the pink hedgehog gave a dry chuckle. "I'm having a hard enough time trying to get myself to not call her 'auntie', I've called her that since I was two years old." she internally marveled at how small her aunt seemed now. "Now I'm almost ten years her elder...considering what she looks like as an adult, puberty must've hit her like a truck."

The rabbit girl had changed substantially as well over the course of three years. She too had grown taller, and she was beginning to grow out her bangs; in a few more years they would probably cover her right eye. The most dramatic transformation though was her voice. Three years earlier, her squeaky voice was an audible representation of just how young she was, but now at nine years old, her voice had balanced out somewhat so that most of the traces of her old voice had vanished, leaving behind a light, silvery and yet unmistakably young sound that was pleasing to the ear. "There you go Mr. Silver, all better." she gently patted his arm and smiled up at him.

"Thanks kid." the silver hedgehog gave a thumbs-up, and once Cream turned around to put her medical supplies back into her backpack which she'd brought with her, Silver hovered over to Aurora and Sticks who were still talking in hushed whispers. They stopped when he approached them. "She seems nice."

"Nice doesn't even _begin_ to cover it." Aurora replied. "Auntie Cream is the sweetest person you'll ever meet in _any_ timeline." she looked up at the ceiling with a reminiscent smile, kicking her feet back and forth while sitting on the workbench. "Some of my fondest childhood memories are from when she babysat me whenever Mom and Dad would go out on a date. We'd do arts and crafts, she'd take me to her favorite Chao Garden so we could play with all the Chao that Cheese had made friends with." she chuckled. "She even taught me how to recreate my favorite flavor of ice cream!" Aurora's eyes became half-lidded at the thought. "I still don't know how she managed to come up with a perfect recipe for Cherry Jubilee."

Blissfully unaware of the conversation taking place behind her back, Cream closed up her backpack and handed it to Cheese, who took it and flew it over to a different table with ease. "Thanks Cheese." With that done, the rabbit walked over to Blaze who was busy trying to figure out Tails' computer, and by the heat radiating from her body, it was evident that the cat girl was getting frustrated. "What's the matter Blaze?"

"I can't get this... _thing_ to turn on." Blaze nearly slammed her fists into the console but she took a deep breath and calmed herself before she could lose her self control. After ten minutes of futility though, she'd had enough of wrestling with Tails' contraption. She cast a weary glance in the young rabbit's direction. "How have you been Cream? You look well."

"Thanks." she beamed at her friend. Gone was the old orange dress and instead she now wore something less formal looking: a simple orange t-shirt and blue jeans with white sneakers. "I've been doing well," she looked over her shoulder at Cheese who was enjoying the attention Aurora was now giving him. "Cheese recently reincarnated, I was afraid that he'd forget all about me when he hatched from his egg again, but luckily he remembered who I was and we pretty much picked up right where we left off."

"Good to hear, I know the last time we saw each other you were worried about what would happen to him." Blaze nodded and gave a faint smile to her young friend, but it soon faded as she turned back to the computer console that was silently mocking her. "Ok...let me try this again."

"You have to press the on switch first."

Blaze's fingers were only inches away from the console when the rabbit spoke up, and she slowly lifted her hands away from the console and just as slowly turned her head towards the nine-year old. "You know how to work this thing?"

Cream nodded. "Yes, Tails taught me how some time ago...we've been..." her cheeks went ever-so-slightly pink. "Hanging out more recently."

"I see." Blaze chose to ignore Cream's bashful expression and simply got up from the chair and gestured for Cream to take a seat. "Well in that case, if you would be so kind."

Grateful that her friend had decided not to comment on her blush, Cream nodded and took a seat in front of the computer console. "There's a specific combination of keys you have to press in order to activate the computer, Tails said he didn't want anyone to be able to hack into it and steal all his blueprints for all his inventions." Cream began pressing keys on the holographic keyboard, and sure enough, the computer activated and a screen came up asking for a password.

"Are you serious?" Blaze deadpanned.

The rabbit giggled at that. "Tails can be a little bit paranoid sometimes."

"Well considering these people tried to break into his lab, I'd say it's justified!" Gemerl suddenly piped up. The gizoid had been sulking in the far corner of the lab after Cream had lectured him about fighting before thinking.

"Hush Gemerl," Cream scolded gently before typing in another password. Once that was done, the computer went to its default desktop, which happened to be a recent picture of the whole gang outside Twinkle Park. "There you go, I hope you don't mind that I logged you into _my_ account, I don't know the password to Tails'."

Now this caught Blaze off guard as her eyes widened a bit. "Tails gave you your own account for _his_ computer?"

"Uhh..." before Cream could answer though, they heard voices coming from outside the lab, rather frantic ones at that.

"Someone broke into my lab!"

"So let's break whoever did!"

"Uh oh, it's Uncle Tails!" Aurora whispered urgently to her teammates.

"He sounds upset." Silver gulped.

Suddenly Tails burst through the front door with Knuckles and Amy backing him up, and when he saw just how many strange people were in his lab, he quickly reached into his tool belt and grabbed a hurricane bomb, which instantly got everyone to put their hands up. "You've got five seconds to tell me who you are and then clear out!"

"They're with _me_ Tails."

That voice was familiar to the fox boy, and he turned his head to see Blaze standing next to his computer with her arms crossed over her chest. "Blaze?" he lowered his weapon just a bit. "How'd _you_ get in here?"

 _"I_ let them in Tails."

Tails turned his head a bit to the left, and he saw his chair swivel around and reveal a rather guilty looking young rabbit. "Cream?" he finally placed the hurricane bomb back into his tool belt before walking over to Cream, who refused to meet his gaze. "Cream, _what_ is going on?" he asked gently. "Who _are_ these guys?" he gestured to the large group of unfamiliar individuals.

"They're with me." Blaze repeated, gaining the fox's attention. "We needed access to your computer because we need information...the fate of both our universes are at stake."  
_

 **A/N: Yes I know, my chapter titles need work. Anyways, Cream and Gemerl are in the house! I remember some folks saying how they didn't necessarily wanna see background information explained for characters they already knew, and I can see where they're coming from. However, it's necessary because this is a "three years later" story when placed next to canon, so a little description is needed. Cream has also grown up some in three years, and it'll show as the story goes on. I like the design that's used for her older self, the long bangs and all, but I do wonder where that originated from.**

 **Also, Gemerl. I hate how he's so unused in stories, especially action ones. At the end of Sonic Advance 3, Tails fixed him up for Cream and he went to live with them there as the "reincarnation" of Emerl so to speak. So he exists, but folks just choose not to use him, which is a shame, because the idea of Emerl (he's from Sonic Battle if you don't know who I'm talking about) coming back in the form of Gemerl is a good one, and I for one plan to take full advantage.**

 **Now then, Aurora. Her favorite flavor of ice cream isn't made up by me, I asked E-vay personally and that's the answer she gave me. I'm the one writing the story but I've been trying to stay as true to her character as possible. The way she develops her characters in her comics and drawings is second to none, and I feel sorry for anyone who hasn't had a chance to see her work yet.**

 **I've talked enough. So we've got our action, our down time...and a small sample of implied romance between Tails and Cream. How serious is it? Well you'll have to find out. It's obvious Cream likes Tails now, but what's Tails' take? More will be revealed in future chapters. As always, please leave a review and let me know what you think!**


	6. Hacking Hijinks

**It's that time again! Here's the next exciting chapter of this tale of adventure, action...and romance. Yes, it will come eventually, believe me. Now then, I wanted to make sure I got this chapter out by today because today - October 17th - is a very special day. If you're confused as to what makes it special, read the author's notes below. Also, new cover image for the story! Yep, E-vay allowed me to use some of her art so the story actually has a face now. Thanks E-vay!**

 **So then, anonymous reviews!**

 **Yago: I see that you're confused, and your questions are valid. HOWEVER, they will be answered in due time, so don't you worry. But because this is the second time this has been brought up, I will say this. NO, Silver is not Shadow and Aurora's son. In this universe, they're all from the same time period.**

 **And that's it! So, to recap, when we last left off, Ba'Gan and Eggman had escaped and Tails and the rest of the team headed back to Mobius to try and find Sonic. Upon reaching his lab, they ran into Blaze's team along with Cream, Cheese and Gemerl, and that is where we pick up the story. Without further ado, enjoy! I own nothing except the story and Yukon "Houdini" the Sugar Glider. Aurora the Hedgehog and the cover image of her belong to E-vay.  
_**

"What do you mean by 'both our universes?'" Tails asked with a slight shake of his head.

Blaze hesitated to answer, it would've been difficult to explain that she'd just come from the future...even though she was currently in her own present. She blinked away the headache that was building from thinking about it. The whole time travel thing was incredibly confusing. "A new threat has appeared in my dimension, and it happens to have the capability of coming into _this one._ We need help from you and Sonic if we're going to defeat it."

"Oh...well," Tails coughed into his fist and moved to his computer chair which Cream had just removed herself from. "There's a small problem with that."

"What is it?"

"How much time do you have?" Tails logged out of Cream's account and quickly got into his own, and then he began typing madly as he started searching for information. "Believe it or not, we just got back from Eggman's newest base...and we lost Sonic in the battle."

"What?!"

Everyone turned to Aurora who now looked positively horrified and was on the verge of tears. Sensing an outburst coming, Silver hurried over and grabbed Aurora by the shoulders to lead her over to the corner. "We'll just be over here, don't mind us!" Ignoring the suspicious glare that Amy was currently giving them, Silver led the girl over to the corner of the lab and looked her in the eyes. "Aurora, your dad is fine, calm down." he whispered as firmly as he could.

"Calm down?!" she hissed furiously. "You _did_ hear what he said right? They lost him in the battle! How am I supposed to believe he's fine?!"

"Because if he were dead, you would've already been phased out of existence."

Aurora's anger quickly dissipated and she blinked as her rationality returned to her. "Good point." she turned her head slightly to see the young version of her mother still glaring at her, and she gave a faint chuckle at the sight. "My mom's flipping out because of how I reacted, she's jealous."

"Well you better find a way to fix it without letting her know we're from the future, we gotta make sure we're all on the same page, at least where it counts."

Aurora smirked. "Don't you worry about that, I've got a _pretty_ good idea of what I need to do." Walking past the silver hedgehog who was now scratching his head, Aurora calmly walked over to where Amy was standing with her arms crossed, now refusing to look at her. "Sorry about the outburst, I'm a big fan of Sonic and I kinda freaked out."

"No kidding."

Her mother's cold response didn't even faze her. "But you know, as much as I wanted to meet Sonic on this adventure, the one I was _really_ looking forward to meeting was _Shadow_ the Hedgehog."

Amy's ears perked up and she turned her head just enough so that she could get a good look at Aurora. "Shadow?"

"Yeah, he's just _sooo_ dreamy, don't you think? The way his quills are shaped, or his ruby red eyes that can see right through you..." Aurora looked down at the ground with a forlorn smile, her voice cracking ever so slightly from the tender thoughts of her Shadow running through her mind. "Or the way he's willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the ones he loves."

"Sounds about right," Amy finally turned to face the bright pink hedgehog, her jealously now forgotten. "You sure seem to know a lot about Shadow."

Aurora breathed out a sad laugh before speaking up again. "I guess you could say I know him better than most...I've had a _long time_ to learn about him."

"Hey, there's no reason to be all sad!" Amy placed a hand on Aurora's shoulder. "Trust me, I spent almost half my life learning about Sonic and making friends with him, and I went through a lot of trouble on the way. All you gotta do is keep trying and eventually you'll reach your goal of meeting Shadow. Heck, you _might_ even become _friends_ someday!"

"Yeah," Aurora looked up with her eyes half-lidded. "Someday."

"I got something!" Tails shouted in an attempt to get everyone's attention. Once everybody gathered around his chair, the fox boy began pulling up information. "I've gained access into G.U.N.'s database, and there seems to be some archived information from the Space Colony ARK on Incursites, the species that took over Sonic's body." Tails brought up a 3D image of a typical Incursite, and it began spinning as more data was extracted from the G.U.N. computers. "Looks like Prof. Gerald was working on more than just weapon designing, there's information here on all _sorts_ of alien species."

"You mean like those scary black aliens that came to Earth a few years ago?" Amy asked.

"There's more data on the Black Arms than any other species in the ARK's database, obviously since Black Doom had a hand in creating Shadow." Tails pressed a few more keys. "But Prof. Gerald had information on a lot of other alien species as well, luckily the Incursites were one of them."

Knuckles crossed his arms. "So does it say anything about how to _beat 'em?"_

"Not that I can tell," Tails squinted as he attempted to focus on the data. "According to what's here, Incursites are parasitical beings who require a host in order to function properly, they do this by absorbing themselves into the chosen host and then overriding all nerve functions with their own...even the host's personality is overridden with that of the Incursite's." Tails frowned as more data came in, and a new picture of an unknown species came up with wires and machinery running around and through the unknown species' body. "They also have highly advanced technology that once used on a victim, it will essentially turn them into robots, programmed to serve the will of their masters!"

"Droids." Aurora and Sticks whispered to each other with worried looks.

"Tails, those robots, those are what are currently overrunning my world," Blaze got in front of the fox boy who was now watching her as she spoke. "Those creatures took the Sol Emeralds from me, I must get them back so I can save my world."

"Wait a sec," Amy stepped up with an eyebrow raised. "If those robots took the Sol Emeralds from you, how'd you get to our dimension in the first place?"

Blaze flinched ever-so-slightly, but she thought fast and came up with a reasonable excuse. "I was able to get my hands on one of the emeralds and open a portal to your dimension, I would've taken it with me but the robots arrived and took it back, I barely managed to get here."

"And these other guys came with you?" Knuckles asked as he turned to look at the other strangers.

The Sol guardian decided to go with it as she nodded an affirmative. "Yes, they were attempting to help me retrieve the Sol Emeralds but we were stopped by the sheer numbers the robots had." she clenched her fists as she tried to keep her voice level. "I can only imagine what those monsters have done to my world," That much wasn't a lie, and it infuriated the cat girl to no end. "I must get back there before it's too late."

Tails sighed and leaned back in his chair, running his hand through his hair as he tried to think. "We'd love to help Blaze, but we have a problem of our own! Eggman has managed to revive an Incursite here, and it took over Sonic's body which is currently being powered by the Chaos Emeralds," he sat back up and started typing on his keyboard again. "If we're gonna help you, then we need to get Sonic back first." After a few more seconds, the fox boy slammed his fists into the control panel in frustration. "I've looked through every folder of the ARK's recovered database and there's nothing on what type of weakness an Incursite has!"

"But there's _gotta_ be a way Tails!" Amy exclaimed desperately. "We _can't_ just give up!"

"I'm _not_ giving up, I have an idea." Tails started typing furiously and a whole new image appeared on screen, one which displayed the blueprints of a strange tuning fork-shaped device.

"What's that Tails?" Cream asked as she leaned over the side of the chair.

Tails paid her no mind and kept working. "It's my Gene Splicer, a new invention I experimented with a few weeks back by taking kiwis and strawberries and merging them into one fruit." Tails looked at the rabbit a moment with a smile. "It was a success, and a tasty one at that."

Cream smirked at him before looking back up at the screen. "So what do you plan on doing with it _now?"_

Tails' smile vanished instantly. "Well, genes are made up of DNA, and each individual has their own specific DNA which makes them unique, even identical twins have different DNA. According to the data from the ARK, Sonic's nerve functions have been overridden, but not replaced. We've seen firsthand that Sonic is still very much in there." The fox boy got up from his chair and everyone watched as he rummaged through a box of gadgets. "Theoretically, if I reverse the polarity on my Gene Splicer, I could separate Sonic's DNA from Ba'Gan's DNA and remove Ba'Gan from Sonic's body altogether."

"Bah-Gone?" Sticks scratched her head.

Tails shook his head. "No, Ba'Gan; that's the name of the Incursite inside Sonic." he quickly explained as he turned back to everyone with his handheld device in one hand. "Here it is, now to reverse the polarity."

"That's great Tails," Amy said as her eyes followed the fox boy around the room. "But you said 'theoretically' which doesn't exactly give me the warm fuzzies." she put her hands on her hips. "What's Plan B if it _doesn't_ work?"

Tails frowned deeply and looked the darker pink hedgehog in the eye. "Plan A _better_ work," he said grimly. "If it _doesn't_...well..." his voice trailed off.

"Oh," Amy paled in horror at the thought of what Tails was suggesting. "Well then, let's get to work on Plan A, I'm not about to let Sonic become a martyr for our cause."

"Already done." Tails pressed a button and the Gene Splicer lit up with a soft purple glow.

"Awesome, so all that's left is to find them," Knuckles crossed his arms. "Which is gonna be a problem, since there's no telling where Eggman's gonna set up shop until he actually does."

"Oh, _that's_ not a problem." Tails grinned confidently and went back to his computer to activate his spy cameras. After a moment or two, an image appeared on screen and the team also grinned as they instantly recognized the figures on screen. "That's not a problem _at all."_

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Got any threes?"

"Nope! Go fish!"

"He _must_ be cheating."

"I am not!"

"That is what you said the _last_ three games."

"Well, it doesn't matter, I win!" the tiny creature flew around the room laughing loudly, much to the irritation of the other two in the room with him.

"No one likes a sore winner Bokkun!"

"And no one likes a sore loser Decoe!"

Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun, three of Eggman's older robots were sitting in a darkened room with only a light bulb to illuminate it with, and they were currently engaged in a game of Go Fish, which somehow the small gremlin-like robot kept winning much to the annoyance of the two larger robots. "I wonder if Dr. Eggman will return soon, I do not think I can take much more of Bokkun's gloating." the tallest of the three groaned with his hands on his head.

"We should be grateful. Orbot and Cubot got stuck with babysitting duty the last _two_ times, _we_ are actually getting off easy." the stubby Bocoe said more for his own good than Decoe's.

"You guys just don't wanna play anymore because I keep beating you!" Bokkun laughed and flew around the two robots who were simply getting angrier as the grating laughter continued to ring in their robotic ears.

"I think it is safe to say that listening to Bokkun laugh at us is even more irritating than listening to Cream talk three years ago." Bocoe winked at his friend, who picked up on the message and seemed to grin evilly despite not having a mouth.

"Yes, I remember those days, listening to her voice was like listening to nails scraping against a chalkboard!"

The laughter immediately stopped as Bokkun swooped down in front of them and screamed with his limbs flailing in rage. "Don't you talk about her that way!" his mood quickly changed as his eyes began to sparkle. "Not a day goes by that my sweet Cream doesn't get even more beautiful than ever."

"And even more out of your league." Decoe replied smoothly as he began reshuffling the cards.

"Yes, surely you realize by now that she has outgrown you, both literally _and_ figuratively." Bocoe added.

"I'm working on that!" the little robot screamed. "I'm working on a brand new design for myself that'll make her _instantly_ fall in love with me!"

"You plan on having Dr. Eggman make you look like Justin Beaver?"

"Or perhaps he wants to trick her into thinking he is Tails."

Bokkun began to tear up and whimper, and it wasn't long before he was on the ground bawling. "You guys are awful! I'll never forgive that bat for spilling my secret to everyone!"

Decoe and Bocoe just gave each another deadpan looks before the skinny robot started dealing the cards again. Bokkun's secret crush on Cream the Rabbit had been revealed to them by Rouge the Bat two years ago, and the only time the robots ever decided to exploit that knowledge was when the messenger robo was being more obnoxious than usual. Suddenly however, an alarm began blaring and red lights began to flash in the fortress that shocked them and knocked them out of their chairs, sending cards flying everywhere. "What is going on?!" Decoe shouted over the alarm.

Bocoe quickly rushed over to the nearest active computer console and examined the alert. "It is an intruder alert! There is an enormous aircraft that has just landed in the hangar bay!"

"Wait a second!" Decoe went over to the console and looked at the craft. "That is no intruder! That is Dr. Eggman!"

Just then the door on the other side of the room opened, and in came Eggman with Metal Sonic, Orbot, Cubot...and of course the form of a very familiar hedgehog.

"And he brought guests!" Decoe exclaimed.

"He _brought Sonic!"_ Bokkun pointed at the organic, and once again blue, hedgehog in complete shock.

Just then, the form of Sonic the Hedgehog opened his eyes, and the three robots gasped in shock when they saw that they were glowing red instead of their usual green hue. "What _is_ this place?" Ba'Gan slowly turned his head and glared at the three stunned robots. "Who are these useless heaps of primitive scrap iron?"

"Hey!" Decoe raised an angry fist. "Do _we_ insult _your_ body?!" But the tall yellow robot quickly lowered his fist a bit as he stumbled upon a realization. "That did not sound like your typical Sonic saying."

"I am _not Sonic_ you archaic imbecile," Ba'Gan suddenly groaned and held his head, wincing in pain. He then turned to Eggman who had gone over to the computer console to shut off the alarm. "Doctor, explain yourself. Where are we?" Ba'Gan winced again and groaned. "And why does my head feel like it's being crushed inside of a gravity field? Where is my power?!"

The scientist looked back at the alien with a neutral expression before going over to his main power grid and pushing up on a lever to activate the base's main power. As the lights above began to steadily power on in a row, Eggman walked back to Ba'Gan with a smirk. "Welcome to my secret underground base just below the sleepy little town of Blue Ridge, one of many homes away from home if you will." he stretched his arms out to make a grand gesture, one that Ba'Gan clearly didn't find amusing. "And to answer your other two questions, I'm sure that the exertion of using the power of the Chaos Emeralds combined with your current necessity to fight off Sonic's...indisputably irritating willpower, has put you under a great deal of stress."

"Yes," Ba'Gan snarled even as he put his other hand on his head and winced once more. "This...this host of mine is unlike any other I've ever encountered. I have his memories, his knowledge, and I can see that his persistence knows no boundaries...rraahh!" Ba'Gan got on his knees and growled in agony as his headache began to grow unbearable. "I require a quiet place to rest," he strained. "I need time to recover and reestablish my hold on this body!" he looked up at Eggman and glared, slowly getting back to his feet. "You will provide me with suitable quarters!"

"Hey! You can't talk to Dr. Eggman like that!" Bokkun's bold statement earned him a murderous glower from Ba'Gan, which got the robot to scream in fear and hide behind Eggman who was also giving him a glare, only this one was one of annoyance. "On second thought, who am I to tell you what to do?" the small robot whimpered.

Eggman chose not to acknowledge the messenger robo and simply looked back down at Ba'Gan, who was trying desperately to look like he was in a position of power, but the sweat pouring down his face from the exertion and the constant wincing along with the very rigid stance made that difficult. "My robots will escort you to your guest quarters, and they will be at your beck and call for any request you might have," Eggman gave the creature a smarmy smile and an exaggerated bow. "Consider yourself my guest Ba'Gan, it's the least I can do for your agreeing to be my ally in my quest to take over the universe." Ba'Gan opened his mouth to respond, but another shooting pain in his head cut him off and he merely followed Orbot and Cubot out of the room and down the dingy hallway. Once the door closed, the smile vanished and Eggman went over to his computer console.

"Doctor, what is happening? Is that Sonic?" Decoe asked as he humbly approached his master.

"In a manner of speaking," Eggman said cryptically as he continued to type in several command codes. Finally he pressed the enter button and several whirring sounds were heard throughout the base. "There we go, that should keep any annoying intruders away." Eggman then turned to his older robots and grinned. "Because you've finally managed to _not_ do something _wrong,_ I shall reward you by giving an explanation as to exactly what's happening." he turned back to his computer and began typing, and G.U.N. files began appearing on screen. "I see those fools at G.U.N. have updated their security systems, it took me about two minutes longer than usual to get into their files."

"What do you need to get into _there_ for?" Bocoe asked.

"Even the greatest scientific genius in the universe can learn something new," Eggman replied. "Who you all thought was Sonic was in fact an alien creature known as an Incursite, which has taken control of Sonic's body. As far as I am aware, he is the last of his kind, and with his power at my disposal I will soon rule the universe!" Eggman folded his hands and began to read as information began to slowly scroll down the screen. "But before I get too comfortable, I must first learn everything I can about these creatures so that I can be prepared for any contingencies, and I'm sure my grandfather has some interesting data that should come in quite handy."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Central City, the largest city on Mobius and known to all as "the place to be" if you were looking for excitement. Various hotels and apartment buildings lined the streets, along with small mom and pop shops and chain restaurants and anything else you could possibly ask for could be found there. And construction was almost always happening in one area or another in order to expand it further. This morning was no exception, as construction workers went about their jobs and complained about the daily drawls of life, blissfully ignorant of the danger now present on their planet.

However, Central City was more than just the cornerstone of Mobius, it was also the headquarters to the Guardian Units of Nations, otherwise known as G.U.N. They were the military elite, the first responders to any crisis be it big or small. Of course, their fame was usually undermined by the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog and his band of friends, but most soldiers understood that their job was to protect the citizens of Mobius with their lives.

Today however, there was no life threatening crisis, no reason to go out and lay their lives on the line, at least not yet. Instead, they were currently dealing with an internal crisis, one that they were already intimately familiar with. "Have you traced the source of the hack?" the G.U.N. Commander asked gruffly, his aging form still as imposing as ever.

The young technician sitting in front of him looked over his shoulder and nodded an affirmative. "It's him sir."

"I suspected as much," the Commander nodded solemnly. He then pressed a button on his wrist and it began blinking a soft shade of blue, and several minutes later, the doors to the main headquarters opened and the Commander spoke without turning around. "Agent Rouge, welcome."

Standing in the doorway was the sultry and curvaceous form of Rouge the Bat, known to all as one of G.U.N.'s top agents by day...and a "reformed" jewel thief by night. "So what's all the hubbub?" she asked as walked into the room to look at the enormous main screen.

The Commander paid no mind that the bat had just walked up next to him and began giving her the briefing. "We've just detected that someone has hacked into Prof. Gerald Robotnik's top secret files, and thanks to your friend Tails' upgrades, we've already traced the hacker's electronic footprints and determined his identity and location."

About a year and a half ago, Tails had come to Central City offering to upgrade the firewalls and antiviruses of the G.U.N. computer systems, stating that they were too outdated and too easy to break into now, and G.U.N. would never even know if someone like Eggman had hacked in. He met with a certain amount of resistance, but with Rouge vouching for him, he was eventually allowed to make the upgrades, and now on top of the increased security measures, the G.U.N. computers now had a hidden program that would immediately begin working on tracing the source of a hack if someone was skilled enough to get through.

Up until this point, no one had been able to. "So the little genius did good," Rouge smirked. "Who's our mystery man?"

The Commander looked down at the 21-year old bat girl and gave her a grim look. "It's Dr. Eggman, and he's apparently holed up somewhere underneath Blue Ridge."

Rouge's eyes widened slightly at first, but she quickly recovered and gave an amused snicker at what she'd just been told. "Well now, things just got a little more interesting around here."  
_

 **A/N: Enter Rouge the Bat, a character who merely made a sort of cameo appearance in my original Dash Adventure, but she'll be doing more in this story. Also, Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun! Yes, I'll also be bringing certain elements of Sonic X into this story, as I think they'd be fun to play with. Speaking of elements, Justin Beaver mention. That was for you, Sonic Boom fans. Hope you liked that reference.**

 **Now then, I said that today was a very special day and that was the reason I wanted to get this chapter out before the day was over. For those of you who don't know about why today is special, it has something to do with the one who has been graciously accommodating me and letting me use her characters and artwork for this story. Today, October 17th, is E-vay's birthday!**

 **That's right, Aurora's creator and one of the elite Sonamy artists on the internet turned one year older today, and this chapter is my attempt at giving her a gift. I realize it isn't much E-vay, but I hope you enjoyed this short little update. It will get exciting again soon, that I promise you! So until then dear readers, make sure to leave a review and let me know what you think. Happy Birthday E-vay!**


	7. Sneaking Through Shadows

**Hey everybody! Time for another chapter of this epic tale of action and drama! So...I guess no one actually saw the last chapter update, or maybe the lack of action just pushed everyone away...is that it? You guys don't like downtime chapters? I need to know what's wrong if I'm gonna make the story better. Leave me a review so I know. Anyway, when we last left off, we introduced a few new characters and explained the plans that the teams were putting together to accomplish their goals. Also, we now know the origin of Droids and their connection to Ba'Gan as an Incursite.**

 **Speaking of Ba'Gan, it appears that Sonic is still making things difficult for him to keep control, and now Tails has a plan to break Sonic free. The only question is, will it work? Well, you'll have to read on to find out what the details of the plan are and if it'll work or not. So without further ado, here is the next chapter! Enjoy! I own nothing except the story and Yukon "Houdini" the Sugar Glider. Aurora the Hedgehog belongs to E-vay  
_**

Once the large team of heroes confirmed the location of Eggman's base, it wasn't long before they were on their way. Of course, seeing as Blue Ridge wasn't reachable by land, certain arrangements had to be made in order to accommodate everyone and make sure no one was left behind. And so it was that Miles "Tails" Prower took about half of the team in the toned down X-Tornado, while a different pilot took the helm of the original Tornado, and this pilot was a very unlikely one.

"So...Cream, _when_ exactly did you learn how to fly this thing?" Amy leaned up in her chair to give a sly grin to her little sister.

To her credit, the rabbit girl did her best to keep her composure despite Amy's incessant teasing. When Tails had revealed to everyone that he'd taught Cream how to fly his planes - no matter how logical the reason - Amy couldn't help but break out into a full-on toothy grin, one that caused Cream to want to hide behind her ears and never come back out. "Tails started teaching me a few months ago, and he already told you why." she replied without taking her eyes off the sky.

"Yeah yeah, I know," Amy rolled her eyes, the grin never leaving her face. "He wanted to make sure that if anything ever happened to him, someone would be able to fly the plane in a crisis, totally and completely logical." she leaned forward again and her smile grew larger. "But what _I_ wanna know is, why _you?_ Why not me or Sonic? It sure seems like you and Tails have been spending a lot of time together lately."

Cream tried not to react, but even with her ears flapping in the rushing wind behind her, she could feel her cheeks warming up and her heartbeat suddenly pick up the pace. "Amy please, I'm trying to concentrate, I'm still learning how to fly and I need to pay very close attention to what I'm doing." she said as politely as she could.

"Fine," Amy closed her eyes and shrugged, leaning back in her chair. "But mark my words, we're not done here." the darker pink hedgehog opened one eye and smirked again. "Just for the record, I think I saw Tails blush when he saw you in your adventure outfit."

The rabbit gulped back her response and chose not to answer her longtime best friend. Just before they'd left to go after Eggman, Cream had gone down to Tails' bathroom to change into an outfit somewhat similar to Amy's that she'd been gifted. It was a sleeveless a-line dress that went down to her knees with a brown belt tight around her waist. Added to the ensemble was a short, dark orange scarf that covered her shoulders and was tied in the front, and her gloves were also different as now instead of just being plain white, they had a splash of yellow on each glove with an orange outline, and her shoes were sneaker versions of her classic yellow and orange ones. _"I'm beginning to think I shouldn't have worn this."_

"Hey, give the kid a break, it looks like you're embarrassing her."

Amy frowned a bit and turned her head to look at the figure who was tightly holding on to the right wing of the Tornado. "Yukon, right?" she received a nod in response. "Listen, this is just how Cream and I are, she knows I'm just messing with her," she turned her head back towards her young friend. "Right Cream?"

"Most of the time."

Amy gave a deadpan look at that, not that Cream was able to see it. She then turned back to the Sugar Glider who seemed to be trying very hard not to get blown off the wing by his gliding membrane. "Enough about me and Cream, what's _your_ story? I assume you're a friend of Blaze?"

"That's right," Yukon nodded. The future-dwellers had discussed their alibis with Blaze before takeoff, and they'd agreed to tell the truth as long as they didn't reveal anything that would indicate where they really came from. "Blaze needed help to get the Sol Emeralds back, and we all banded together to try and do that, unfortunately we got overrun." That much was truth, and the marsupial inwardly cringed as he remembered exactly what had happened before their arrival in the current time period.

"You and the others?" Amy tilted her head a bit. "You guys mentioned your names before we left but I'm still not sure exactly who you are."

"Does it really matter?" The voice of the Master Emerald guardian came from the other wing and got everyone's attention. "At this point we need all the help we can get, we can't be picky about who we get to help out." Knuckles looked directly at Yukon. "I'll readily admit I'm not the most social guy in the world, but I can tell you're telling the truth about wanting to help, that's all that matters to me."

Amy smirked. "Of course, because you're _such_ an excellent judge of character." she put a finger on her chin and looked up quizzically. "Let's see, how many times has Eggman tricked you already? Once, twice, three times? I think it might've been more than that."

The echidna growled and whipped his head to glare at the pink hedgehog. "You're in no position to make jokes at my expense! How many times have you mistaken someone else for Sonic?!"

"That's low!"

Yukon watched wide-eyed as the two went back and forth in a heated argument, and he leaned forward a bit so he could talk to the rabbit girl who was trying desperately to tune it out. "Do they _always_ argue like this?"

Cream shook her head and sighed. "Amy and Mr. Knuckles are very alike, they both have a very strong will and they don't like backing down from fights, even if they're against each other." she sighed again and tried to refocus her attention back on the sky ahead of her. "I sure hope Tails, Blaze and the others are having a better time than _we_ are."

While it was certainly quieter in the cockpit of the X-Tornado, the tension wasn't any less thick; the reasons for the tension were completely different however. "Blaze, _relax."_ the fox boy pressed a few buttons on his dashboard before putting both hands on the steering mechanism again. "I know you don't like heights but I _promise,_ there's no safer place in the world than right here."

"You don't like heights?" Aurora, who was sitting in the seat behind Blaze, leaned up in her seat and tilted her head questioningly at the now mortified cat girl. "You seemed ok when you climbed that tree in the Mystic Ruins."

"I...have never been a fan of heights." she slowly replied through gritted teeth. "Of course, information like that is on a need-to-know basis," Blaze leaned up and made a fist and held it front of Tails' face so he would see it. "And no one else needs to know, are we clear?"

The young genius gulped. "Crystal." he pressed another button on his dashboard and the intense image of Sticks on a wing of the plane appeared on the small screen next to him. "So...your friend Sticks...she didn't really seem like she liked the idea of flying, any particular reason?" he said in an attempt to change the subject.

Aurora spoke up first in order to make sure her young uncle stayed alive. "Sticks and technology have never really gotten along," the light pink hedgehog explained. "She would much rather camp out in the woods than hang out in the city, and it usually takes her a while to get used to something new when it comes along." she laughed a bit. "She's my best friend and I love her, but she can be more than a handful at times."

"That's an understatement," Blaze scoffed. "Nevertheless, she is a valued member of my team and she has already proven herself as such, I have no doubt she will be a great help in our mission."

"I'm still a little confused, what exactly _is_ our mission?"

Tails smiled a bit, inwardly relieved that his previous snafu had apparently been forgotten. "It's simple Aurora, we're going to find a way to sneak into Eggman's base, grab the Chaos Emeralds, and then we find Sonic so I can use my Gene Splicer on him." he held up his device and then set it back down again. "After that we'll play it by ear, we still have to find what Ba'Gan's weakness is, whether it's in his normal form or while he's inside of a host."

"And you have _no idea_ what it might be?"

Tails shook his head. "Not yet, I'll have to try and do some experiments first, but that can wait until _after_ we find Sonic." A loud beep then invaded the cockpit as an alert flashed on Tails' screen. Seeing what the screen was telling him, Tails put on a headset and spoke into the microphone. "This is Tails, we'll be over Blue Ridge in about five minutes, everyone prepare for landing!"

"Got it Tails!" Outside the two planes, the gizoid guardian flew at high speed next to the psychokinetic hedgehog who had also opted to do things his way during the trip. "Ok intruder, Tails says we'll be over Blue Ridge in about five minutes, hope you're ready."

Silver sighed and shook his head. "Look, I'm sorry about trying to break into Tails' lab, we _all_ are! But if we're gonna be on the same team, can you at least call me by my name?"

"Maybe if I knew your name I would," Gemerl turned his head to look at the silver hedgehog. "What _is_ your name anyway?"

"Silver," the hedgehog said with a smile. "The name's Silver the Hedgehog, and yours?"

"My given name is Gemerl," the robot looked away. "I'm essentially the reincarnation of an ancient fighting machine who was programmed to destroy the world and everything on it." If he could grin, the gizoid would've been doing so at the nervous look Silver was now giving him.

"Pretty cool...heh..." Silver gulped and flew ever-so-slightly away from the robot. "So uh...how come you're... _not_ destroying the world?"

Gemerl shrugged. "I decided I liked having friends better." he looked back at the hedgehog. "In all seriousness though, I owe a _lot_ to Tails and Cream and everyone else. I have some of the memories of my predecessor and from what my memory banks can tell, they put up with a _lot_ with me, in both my _past_ life and the one I'm living now. Tails managed to reprogram me after Eggman made me his slave, and now I have a will of my own."

"A robot with a soul," Silver smiled. "I guess stranger things have happened."

"You have no idea." Gemerl looked back down and saw land below, and saw that the two planes had already begun their descent. "My sensors indicate that's Blue Ridge down there, let's go pay my old master a little visit!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Once the team landed in the quiet little town of Blue Ridge, they were instantly welcomed by a chill in the air that left goosebumps underneath everyone's fur. Everyone except Blaze and Gemerl of course.

"What a quaint little town this is." the Sol guardian said with a small smile as she looked around the area.

The chilly alpine region featured snow-covered mountains to the northwest of the tiny airfield they'd landed in, and to the northeast was a large power plant that was providing the necessary energy to keep the few residents warm in their homes and workplaces. With tall fir trees and distinctive azure grasses paired with the gentle snowfall, it was the very definition of a winter wonderland.

"You're not cold?" Yukon shivered as he wrapped his arms and gliding membrane around himself. The cat answered his question by smirking and lighting a small flame in the palm of her hand. "Right, the flame thing, got it."

"It's a little nippy out here, but it doesn't seem so bad." Amy shrugged her shoulders before going over to Tails who was busy working with his scanner. "So, any idea where we're supposed to be heading yet?"

Tails looked up from his scanner and frowned at the darker pink hedgehog before nodding. "I'm getting unusually high power readings all around here," Tails motioned to the power plant in the distance. "At first I thought it might've been the power plant up there, but I've managed to recalibrate the scanner to ignore it, and what it's detecting now is actually _under_ Blue Ridge."

"Under huh?" Knuckles gave a toothy smirk and raised a fist that now had one of his signature tools on it. "This sounds like a job for the good ol' Shovel Claws!"

Knuckles was about to start digging when Tails grabbed his arm and held him back. "If we were just looking to storm the place, I'd agree, but Ba'Gan's down there somewhere and so is that Metal Sonic, not to mention whatever army of robots Eggman has in store for us." Tails let go of Knuckles' arm and looked to the rest of the team. "If we're gonna pull this off, we need to get the Chaos Emeralds away from Ba'Gan first, I don't think any of us want to deal with a super-powered Sonic while he's under someone else's control."

"So a stealth mission then?" Amy asked.

Knuckles crossed his arms and scoffed with his eyes closed. "Our track record with stealth hasn't been that great lately."

"I know, but we've got to try again," Tails sighed anxiously and ran a hand through the fur on his head. "None of us are equipped to deal with the kind of power Super Sonic possesses, and as long as Ba'Gan has the Chaos Emeralds, that's a very real and very lethal threat."

"Then we find a way to sneak in." Blaze stepped up. "Let's try to find where we can safely enter."

"Agreed, but first," Tails turned and pulled a small device from his toolbelt and placed it on the X-Tornado, and then he did the same with the original Tornado. "For insurance." the boy genius pushed the red button on a remote control he then pulled out, and then the two planes began to shimmer and actually fade from sight. "One of my latest inventions," Tails said proudly. "A fully functional cloaking device."

"Pretty nifty," Amy smirked and pumped a fist. "Now let's go save Sonic!"

"Shh, wait!" Yukon suddenly exclaimed quietly. "Do you guys hear that?"

Everyone went silent as they tried to listen for the sound that the sugar glider might've heard, and after a moment or two, their eyes widened as they heard a faint humming sound coming towards them. "I know that sound, everyone in here, quick!" Tails pushed everyone within reach towards the nearest building, and just seconds after the door closed behind everyone, the team took cover and watched as three small flying-saucer shaped robots with rotors on the bottom slowly flew by and seemed to observe the area before moving on. Once they were gone, the team came out of hiding and looked at each other grimly. "Sentry drones."

"Eggman's definitely here," Knuckles turned to the young genius and raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Still convinced we need to try stealth again?"

"More so now than ever." Tails put a fist on his chin in thought. "We could probably find a way into Eggman's base by figuring out where those sentry drones are coming from. Problem is, it'd be impossible to get in there without being seen, and my cloaking devices don't work on organic life forms yet."

"I thought you said they were fully functional!" Amy shouted in disbelief.

The fox boy grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Maybe I should've said _almost_ fully functional?"

"Then we find another way." Blaze crossed her arms and lowered her head, but it quickly shot back up as an idea came to her. "Tails, you said your cloaking devices only don't work on _organic_ life, correct?"

"Yeah that's right, why?" Tails' eyes suddenly widened as he realized what the Sol guardian was suggesting. "You want me to use my last cloaking device on Gemerl and send him in to find Eggman alone?"

"Not if someone has a _better_ idea," Blaze looked around. _"Do_ you?" Silence and anxious expressions around the room answered her question. "Give him the cloaking device Tails."

"But Blaze!"

"Cream," Blaze looked right in the eye of the clearly distraught rabbit. "We _have_ to save Sonic, and Gemerl is the only one who will be able to go in unseen."

"Not necessarily." the team turned to look at Aurora, who had just stepped up and walked over next to Gemerl and looked at the robot for a moment before turning towards the others. Then she closed her eyes and her brow furrowed as she began to concentrate, and much to everyone's shock, Aurora began to disappear from sight. Seconds later, she was completely invisible, and she opened her eyes with a satisfied smirk, one that no one could see of course. "With my powers," she had to stifle a laugh when everyone looked around the room trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. "I can bend light to the point where I'm completely invisible, so I'll go with Gemerl and find the Chaos Emeralds!" she reappeared and inadvertently shocked everyone again, and then she smiled when she saw the gleam in her uncle's eye.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Tails said. "We have a plan."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Once Tails attached his final cloaking device to Gemerl's wrist, the gizoid activated it and soon shimmered out of sight. Aurora followed suit with her own powers, and they then waited outside for the sentry drones to reappear. "You ready for this?"

"Uh, yeah." Aurora responded unsurely. Her confidence wasn't the issue, she was just used to doing these kinds of missions alone and not with a partner. "Where exactly are you Gemerl?"

"Shh, my sensors are picking up something!" they both quickly quieted down, and sure enough, the three sentry drones were now flying back past the building, presumably headed back to their base. "That's our cue, let's go see what ol' Egghead's got for us today! Follow me!"

"Yeah, Gemerl," Aurora put her hands on her hips. "I can't see you."

"Here, grab my hand," Gemerl suddenly had his infrared vision blocked. "That's my face Aurora." the robot gently grabbed her hand and together they followed the sentry drones all the way to a well near a small cottage in the middle of the woods. They watched as the drones flew down into the well and disappeared, and they looked down into the well to see if they could spot anything from above. "My sensors lost their signal, looks like they went into Eggman's base."

"Oh good," Aurora shimmered back into view and sighed in relief, and the gizoid deactivated his cloaking device moments later. "I'm not used to team stealth missions, not like this anyway."

Gemerl chose not to comment and instead began speaking to Tails through his own internal communications system. "Gemerl to Tails, we've tracked the sentry drones to a well about a half a klick west from your position, we're going down to investigate."

 _"Acknowledged Gemerl, good luck."_

Gemerl then turned to Aurora who seemed very anxious about going down the well. "Something the matter?"

She looked up a second and then looked back down into the dark well. "I've never really been a fan of the dark," she gulped. "But," she screwed on a determined expression and clenched her fists. "We have a job to do, so I'm just gonna have to suck it up and get over it."

Gemerl would've smiled if he was able, so he settled for an assuring thumbs-up. "That's the spirit." he activated his cloaking device and shimmered out of view. "Follow me."

"M'kay, I don't think you're computing this Gemerl," the pink hedgehog deadpanned. "I can't see you!"

"Sorry about that," Gemerl grabbed Aurora's hand and ignored the surprised little yelp she gave when he grabbed it. "This way." As Aurora shimmered out of sight, the two slowly and quietly climbed down the well until they reached the bottom where it was almost pitch black save for the hole above they'd just climbed down and the small red light above what appeared to be a metal door...with an Eggman symbol on it. "I doubt he could make it any more obvious."

"Subtle has never been his strong point," Aurora looked around the room, thankful that the room had at least a little bit of lighting since she couldn't use her own powers to light it up without giving themselves away. "Now we wait until the next batch of robots come out and we jump through." she whispered.

"Right." They waited for about five minutes, the tension building as they waited for the precise moment they would need to make their move. Finally, without warning, the doors began to slowly open and three more sentry drones came flying out and hovered up and out of the well. "Go!" they both dove for the entrance and managed to get through just before it closed completely, and they both sighed in relief once the realization hit that they'd successfully infiltrated the lair. "How're you holding up?" Gemerl whispered.

"I'm ok," Aurora panted as she put her hands on her knees. After a few more seconds, she relinquished one more sigh and put her hands on her hips before looking into the dark and dank depths of Eggman's underground base. "So, any idea where we need to be heading?"

The invisible gizoid shook his head and tried to activate his communications system, but all he got was some static in his head. "Eggman must have some kind of signal dampener in this place, I can't contact Tails." he looked down to where his chest was and pressed the top button. "My emergency homing signal should be able to get through so the others at least know where we are, but for all intents and purposes, we're on our own."

"Fantastic," the pink hedgehog huffed. "So I guess we just pick a hallway and start walking."

"Sounds good to me." This time Gemerl didn't waste any time and simply grabbed Aurora's hand to avoid any potential of getting lost. But as they quietly made their way through the tunnels, going past unsuspecting robots all the way, the gizoid could sense Aurora's heartbeat steadily beating faster as time went on. "Your heart rate's going through the roof," he whispered. "Are you ok Aurora?"

"Yeah I'm fine," she replied hastily.

"Are you sure? You don't seem-"

"Shh!" Aurora got the gizoid to immediately silence himself, and she closed her eyes and focused on the feeling she'd just gotten. "I can feel the energy coming from the Chaos Emeralds, we're getting closer!"

"What, you're some kind of emerald radar?"

Aurora opened her eyes and looked in the direction she'd sensed the emeralds radiating their energy. "I guess you could put it that way, I'm sensitive to positive and negative energies, that includes the types that the Chaos Emeralds give off. We're almost there!" Aurora was about to race off with Gemerl in tow, but she was suddenly knocked to the ground after bumping into something, and the surprise knocked her out of her invisibility. When she looked up, her eyes widened as they met with a very menacing figure. "Uh oh." she squeaked.

"Aurora!" Gemerl grabbed the hedgehog by the collar and pulled her out of danger just before the imposing figure of Metal Sonic could slice her in half with his electrically-charged razor-sharp claws. Gemerl then deactivated his cloak and held his arm out protectively in front of her. "Ok, I've heard of you before, Metal Sonic right? You're supposed to be Eggman's cheap copy of the genuine article." The blue robot didn't respond and instead advanced to attack, and Gemerl leaped out of the way and made a clean dodge. "Not exactly a talker huh? Alright, actions speak louder than words anyway!"

"Uh, Gemerl?"

The gizoid craned his neck to look behind him, and what he saw would've caused his eyes to widen if they could. "Oh boy."

The two intruders were now surrounded by several large guardian robots and laser sentinels, all with their weapons set to destroy them at the slightest twitch they made. "How utterly foolish of them to expect to invade _my_ fortress undetected, as if they could _ever_ catch the illustrious Dr. Robotnik off guard!" Eggman gloated from his main computer console as he watched through the eyes of Metal Sonic. "Now then Metal Sonic, capture both the girl _and_ the robotic traitor and bring them here to me so I may interrogate them and use them as hostages to take care of the rest of Tails' ragtag crew."

"Are you gonna torture them?" Cubot asked with a scratch of his head. "Like with thumbscrews and stuff?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Eggman turned and glared at the yellow robot. "That's such a crude and barbaric method, even _I_ have my standards!" he turned back to the console and grinned. "No, we're going to use a much more efficient approach to solve this."

"Doctor!" Decoe suddenly shouted. "Intruder alert in sector six!" Suddenly an explosion was heard in the distance. "Now it is in sector five!" Another closer explosion. "It appears that whoever it is, they are heading straight for the others!"

"Metal Sonic, take care of them _now!"_ Eggman shouted.

The robot nodded and began charging up the laser cannon in its chest, and both victims braced themselves for the incoming attack. But before the attack could get off, the side wall suddenly exploded from the other side and sent everything - including Aurora and Gemerl - flying into the other walls with a harsh thump. "Yeah," Aurora winced and grasped at her left shoulder with her right arm. "I'd say that's gonna leave a bruise."

Through the smoke came a very large looking machine, and the pink hedgehog's eyes widened when she realized who had just saved them from certain death at the hands of Metal Sonic. "Eggman robots destroyed, switching target to Metal Sonic!"

"No way! Omega?!" Aurora watched in awe as the hulking form of E-123 Omega went after the robot version of her father with a barrage of bullets from the gatling cannons where his claws normally would be. Then she turned back to the smoke and saw Rouge the Bat flying through it to take care of some of the leftover smaller robots with a Screw Kick that sent several of them crashing into a wall. "Aunt Rouge..." her eyes widened further and she slowly turned back to the huge hole in the wall, tears beginning to well up in her eyes as her heart began to beat painfully fast in her chest. "Can it be?" The last of the smoke cleared, and one last figure was revealed as a result.

"Are you injured?"

The final member and leader of Team Dark walked up to the pink hedgehog and held out his hand to help her up. She wanted to cry, scream, leap for joy, anything other than just sit there on her knees and weep at the sight of who was in front of her...so in her state of total shock, her body shut down and she fainted on the spot.

The emotional strain of seeing a living, breathing Shadow the Hedgehog was too much for her to take.  
_

 **A/N: BOOM! Enter E-123 Omega and SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG! Well you all knew it would happen eventually, Shadow had to make an appearance in this time period at some point. The Shadow in the future they left behind was killed by Ba'Gan, but the Shadow in the present is still alive and kicking! And poor Aurora, bless her heart, she got overwhelmed by seeing him alive again. But they're not out of the woods yet! Eggman knows they're there, and even with Team Dark now on the case, Ba'Gan is still there and the Chaos Emeralds are still in the wrong hands.**

 **Before I continue, I just wanted to make this little announcement. As of very recently, I now have a Tumblr account of my own! You can find me as echidnapower obviously and I'll be posting little images here and there to illustrate what certain things look like if you're unsure. Like for instance, still have no idea what Blue Ridge looks like? I'll be posting a photo that shows exactly what it is. Cream's adventure outfit? It's a design an old friend of mine made for his own project and he drew me the picture because I said I wanted to use it too and he let me. He's since abandoned his project but I still love the design. If you need an image to get in your head, I'll be putting it there!**

 **So with that out of the way, things are getting exciting again! Now Gemerl and Team Dark will have to fight their way out of Eggman's underground base. Will they get out unscathed? Or will they be foiled altogether? The answers lie in the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and PLEASE leave a review!**


	8. Separation

**Hey everyone, sorry it's taken so long to update this, I ran into a bit of writer's block and I wasn't sure what to do with this chapter after last chapter's big reveal. But now I think I've got a decent (note the term DECENT) handle on things and I'm ready to update again. I have a better idea of what I want to do going forward, so the next one should come quicker.**

 **Anyway, before I continue, let me take care of these anonymous reviews.**

 **John: Thanks dude, appreciate the review!**

 **Yago: Lots of that will be seen in this chapter!**

 **So yeah, enough wasting time, it's time to get this party started! I own nothing except the story and Yukon "Houdini" the Sugar Glider. Aurora the Hedgehog belongs to E-vay  
_**

Somewhere in the depths of Dr. Ivo Robotnik's underground base in the sleepy town of Blue Ridge, a creature known to many as a hero sat in a meditative pose with his eyes closed as he tried to clear his thoughts. No one would be able to tell that the body of Sonic the Hedgehog had been taken over by an alien creature unless he opened his eyes, which would reveal a raging blood red that greatly contrasted to the emerald green that Sonic the Hedgehog was so famous for.

Ba'Gan had been in this meditative state for going on three hours, as any attempts to sleep had simply caused the increasingly annoying voice of Sonic the Hedgehog to ring in his mind and yell obscenities and painfully horrible quips that insulted his intelligence to even have to listen to. Luckily, the meditation had allowed for the voice to die down, and Ba'Gan once again had a grip on the body he'd chosen for himself.

 _"It's truly remarkable,"_ Ba'Gan thought to himself. _"This creature's will to live and will to be free is unlike any other I've ever encountered, and the pent up energy and power in this body is even more impressive_." The monster opened his eyes and clenched his fists. _"Just going through his memories, the power he has at his disposal, especially when those jewels are involved, it's simply mind-boggling...and to think I now have the capability of using it myself."_

The monster's forehead furrowed. _"It is strange however...the way that this creature handles his relationships with those he calls friends...particularly the one called Amy."_

 _"You leave her alone!"_

Ba'Gan winced. _"I must have stimulated a particular nerve, you're back."_

 _"I never left snot rocket! All ya did was find a way to ignore me!"_

 _"So it would appear,"_ the creature replied mentally. _"Resistance is futile, I do not intend to relinquish control of your body again, why do you not simply fade away and save yourself the agony of watching as I destroy all that you consider important? Such is the fate of all who will be absorbed by the next generation of Incursites."_

 _"That sounds a lot like giving up, that's not really my style,"_ Ba'Gan could mentally picture Sonic giving him that insipid confident grin. _"But_ you _could always get outta_ my _body and save yourself a ton of migraines, whaddya say?"_

 _"If it meant removing your voice from my mind, I would gladly trade bodies without even a second thought. But I'm afraid I can't evacuate until I've gathered the necessary materials I need to begin your world's transition into Droid slaves."_ Ba'Gan smirked. _"I also need to remain in this body for the sake of compatibility, so for the time being, I'll simply work towards...how do you creatures say it? 'Tuning you out?'"_

 _"Compatibility?"_

Suddenly an explosion rocked the base, and the speaker in the corner of the room Ba'Gan was in crackled to life. _"Ba'Gan, we have an intruder alert! You must eliminate them or your existence will almost surely come to a very abrupt end!"_

 _"Sounds like ol' Egghead's having trouble with my friends."_

 _"So it would seem,"_ Ba'Gan got up from his cot and walked through the door of his quarters, and he casually made his way through the fortress towards where the unmistakable sounds of battle could be heard. _"I shall alleviate the good doctor's troubles, and then my mission will continue uninterrupted."_

 _"You're underestimating my teammates pal, they're a lot tougher than you think."_

 _"Oh? We shall see you filthy rat, we shall see."_

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chaos was erupting in the small hallway now filled with sparking and still twitching robot parts. The former Eggman robot known as E-123 Omega had quickly taken care of the doctor's guardian robots and was now working with Gemerl to try and finish off Metal Sonic, who was simply dodging attacks in an apparent attempt to activate his self-replication program. "Stay still you Sonic-wannabe!" the gizoid shouted in frustration.

"Hey, if he wants to jump around and play leapfrog then let him," Rouge shrugged indifferently as she headed over to Shadow. "Gives us more time to find out what's going on here." As the bat girl approached to see what was going on, she saw Aurora fainted on the ground with Shadow standing over her with an eyebrow raised. "You always were a lady killer." she smirked at the black hedgehog.

"She's clearly in need of medical attention," Shadow picked up the unconscious pink hedgehog and slung her over his shoulder. "I can feel the power of the Chaos Emeralds close by, I'll go get them and then once everyone is out of danger, we'll destroy the base."

Rouge's smirk never left her face as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Who's leading this mission anyway?" The black hedgehog didn't respond beyond giving the G.U.N. agent the tiniest of smirks before rushing off towards the source of the chaos energy. "It's rude to leave without answering ya know!" Rouge rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the battle going on between Omega, Gemerl and Metal Sonic. "A robot rumble to make any twelve-year old nerd geek out."

The bat girl had called upon her old Team Dark teammates to give her some help when she found out she'd be infiltrating a heavily-armed Eggman base. She was good, but certain things required a bit more muscle than even she possessed, and that was where Shadow and Omega came in. Omega of course was more than willing to take another shot or two...or two-hundred at Eggman, and Shadow just happened to be available to assist, as he'd taken to working as a freelance agent for G.U.N. for the more dangerous missions.

Plus, she was his friend. Shadow didn't consider many people to be his friends, so those he did, he would assist them if they were ever to go into battle. That was just who he was.

Rouge waited for an opening where she could jump in and unleash a vicious Screw Kick on the blue robot, but her eyes suddenly widened in shock when she saw Shadow and the girl he was carrying suddenly fly back into the room and inadvertently smash into Gemerl and Metal Sonic, and they all hit the ground with a thud and bounced along the hallway before coming to a stop. "Shadow, what happened?!"

 _"I_ happened."

The spy turned around and her eyes widened further when she saw a very familiar golden hedgehog float into the room with his hand releasing smoke as he'd apparently just unleashed an energy blast. "Sonic?"

"In a manner of speaking."

Rouge quickly dived out of the way when the being who was presumably Sonic in his super form raised his hands and began blasting away at the unsuspecting heroes. She managed to tumble behind a corner and she watched in horror as Super Sonic unleashed blast after blast of chaos energy at her now downed teammate Omega, who was just barely hanging on thanks to the incredible strength of his armor. Clenching a determined fist, she rushed out from behind the corner and threw a few smoke pellets that exploded and blocked Super Sonic's vision. With that small distraction in place, Rouge pulled the damaged E-Series robot away from the battle. "I assume there's some sort of explanation for this, right Big Blue?!" she shouted.

"That's not Sonic!" Gemerl was suddenly flanked to her left with his fists clenched in apparent anger. "Some freaky alien Tails says is called an Incursite took over Sonic's body, we've gotta get the Chaos Emeralds away from him so we can get it out of him!"

"Is _that_ all?" the bat scoffed sarcastically. "No problem, I'll just kick him in the face and he'll drop the emeralds right there on the ground!"

"Sarcasm doesn't really help right now, Mama Rouge."

"Sarcasm's all I got right now hun. I'm good, but part of being a good agent is knowing when you're in over your head," another blast kicked up more rubble and forced her to cover her face with her arm for a moment. "This is one of those times."

"Looks like this one's for me," they turned to see Shadow getting up after previously being knocked unconscious from the sneak attack, and the black hedgehog rose into the air and suddenly transformed into Super Shadow in a burst of golden light. "You may _look_ like Sonic, but your fighting style is all wrong, it's clear that whoever you are, you don't know how to utilize the power you now possess."

Ba'Gan's eyes narrowed and he clenched his teeth in anger at the sight of the formerly black hedgehog. "I know you, you are the one he calls Shadow the Hedgehog, the so-called Ultimate Life Form."

Shadow just scoffed and smirked at his opponent before turning towards Rouge. "Gather everyone together, I'm getting us out of here!" Once he received a nod from his teammate, Shadow blasted forward with a burst of speed and tackled the other golden hedgehog to the ground, restraining him from escaping. "Who are you?" he grunted.

The creature cast a murderous glare at the normally black hedgehog as he struggled to break free from his grip. "My name is Ba'Gan, but you may refer to me as your lord and master!" Ba'Gan suddenly leaned up and slammed his head into Shadow's, and that got the ultimate life form to let go of him as he staggered back after the harsh strike. Then the monster quickly advanced and began punching and kicking Shadow at blinding speed, finally ending with a two-fisted blow that sent Shadow crashing through the wall and into another room.

The room where Eggman had apparently stashed the Chaos Emeralds.

Shaking his head to regain his bearings, Shadow looked up and saw the emeralds hooked up to an odd machine of some sort, they were glowing brightly as an indicator that their power was currently being utilized. The moment Shadow realized the emeralds were there, he flew up and began ripping them out of the machine one by one. Once he got to the fourth one, he was struck from behind by an energy blast and knocked to the ground where he dropped the emeralds. "It's _always_ that fourth Chaos Emerald."

"I cannot allow you to take the source of this form's power!"

Shadow took a defensive stance as he prepared for Ba'Gan's attack, but he lowered his guard slightly when he saw the monster stop in mid-attack and suddenly grab his head in apparent agony. "What?"

"No, not now! Why won't this accursed rodent simply fade into nothingness like all of the others?!"

The ultimate life form watched in fascination as the creature known as Ba'Gan convulsed in agony, screaming like a rabid beast who wanted nothing more than to be put out of its misery. Then without warning, Ba'Gan went limp and his body floated as such in midair even as the super form remained. Then just as quickly, the head shot up and its eyes locked onto Shadow. "Shadow, it's me!"

"Sonic? What's going on here?"

Sonic suddenly grabbed his head and groaned. "I can't hold him back for long!" he groaned again and his eyes began to flicker between the normal red of his super form and the blood red of Ba'Gan's control. "Get the emeralds out of here, you can use them to beat this freak!"

"I-" Shadow was immediately cut off.

"No, you will not take my power away from me!"

"It's _my_ power, snot rocket!"

"Silence!"

Shadow watched in shock as the body of Sonic the Hedgehog continued to convulse as the two minds fought for control. But he quickly remembered his goal and he retrieved the rest of the emeralds while Sonic apparently held back the creature who was wrestling for control. "Sonic-"

"Don't worry about me!" Sonic screamed in agony. "Get the others outta here!"

At that, Shadow smirked. "Who said I was worried about _you?_ Just make sure that Ba'Gan doesn't take control and try to destroy the world, then I'd have to kill you."

For the briefest of moments, Sonic had a smile on his face. "As if you'd even be able to take me down!" But then Sonic screamed, and his body went limp again. When his eyes reopened, the blood red had returned.

"You shall be the first to be absorbed for your defiance!" the monster growled venomously. "Mark my words Shadow the Hedgehog, from this moment on, your time having free will is short!"

Shadow wasted no time flying out of the room, and his eyes immediately locked onto Rouge who had been waiting for him with the others. "We only have a few seconds, make sure everyone stays close!" Shadow looked down at the emeralds in his arms, and they glowed brighter as he began to further channel their energy. "Chaos Control!"

"NO!" Ba'Gan blasted forward at light speed, but he was unable to prevent the disappearance of Shadow and the rest of the intruders, and almost immediately, Ba'Gan felt weaker and he sensed his current form slipping away. "No, I will not be defeated, I will complete my mission even if I have to destroy this host to do so!" Using the last of the energy contained in Sonic's super form, Ba'Gan burst through the ceiling and disappeared.

The whole exchange had not gone unnoticed, as Eggman had been watching through the eyes of Metal Sonic. "Well, it would appear that this won't be as easy as I originally thought."

"Well sir, you know what they say, best laid plans and all that," Orbot said with a shrug. "So what will you do now?"

Eggman began typing on his computer console. "According to these readings, Shadow transported everyone above ground, so the Chaos Emeralds are still within reach!" Eggman pressed a button, and seemingly nothing happened as he leaned back in his seat with his fingers entwined with each other. "As I said, I've prepared for _every_ contingency. If Shadow wishes to oppose me, then I will give him an opponent worthy of his abilities." he turned around in his chair and got up. "Of course, a little insurance couldn't hurt."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"That's it! I dunno about the rest of you but I can't just stay here and wait any longer! I'm going in after 'em!" Sticks the Badger started running out of the building to go after her friend, but she was suddenly cut off by a wall of Mobians and robots that appeared out of nowhere. The sight of at least one of those Mobians caused her eyes to widen in shock. "Shadow?!"

Shadow raised an eyebrow at the fact that this complete stranger seemed to know who he was, but he was soon surrounded by several other Mobians, many of which he recognized as allies and a few strangers. He backed up a couple of steps as Tails slid in on his knees with his scanner to check on the status of the unconscious pink hedgehog. "I asked her if she was injured and she just passed out, I don't know if she's actually hurt or not."

Tails sighed in relief as he stopped the scan. "She's ok, other than a bruise forming on her left shoulder, it looks like she's just fine physically." Tails then moved to scan Omega, who had gone into recovery mode and was slowly repairing his systems from the inside out. "Omega looks like he went through the fires of Hell and back, what happened down there?"

"I think you can explain that better than anyone else kiddo," Rouge stepped up. "I got orders from G.U.N. to infiltrate Eggman's base, and the next thing we know we're facing off against Sonic, who according to Emerl 2.0 here, is literally a man possessed. There was nothing about _that_ in the mission briefing."

"It's a long story," Tails walked over to Shadow who had just powered down from his super form, a big smile on his face when he saw that the black hedgehog was in possession of the Chaos Emeralds. "You got the Chaos Emeralds away from Ba'Gan! That's great! Now we might just have a chance to save Sonic!"

"Not bad Shadow, you sure came through for us this time." Knuckles gave a thumbs-up to the ultimate life form and grinned, but then from the corner of his eye, he saw his new allies talking amongst themselves in hushed whispers. "Uh, something the matter you guys?"

Blaze, Silver, Sticks and Yukon all quickly turned around and stared at the red echidna like deer in the headlights, but before any explanation could be given, Aurora started coming around as a small groan escaped her lips. "Rory, you're ok!" Sticks exclaimed as she ran to embrace her best friend.

Aurora's eyes opened fully as her mind processed the fact that Sticks had her arms wrapped around her shoulders. "Yeah, I'm ok...what happened?" Aurora looked around the room, and then her eyes landed on Shadow once again, and they began brimming with tears as a big smile spread across her face. "SHADOW!" Before anyone could react, the ecstatic pink hedgehog had wrapped her arms around Shadow's torso and captured his lips with her own, kissing him with everything she was.

Everyone - including Shadow - went wide-eyed at this, and the only one able to speak was Rouge, who after recovering from the shock just smirked and placed her hands on her hips. "Like I said, he's a lady killer."

Once his mind actually kicked back in, he grabbed Aurora by the shoulders and pushed her away so that she was at arm's length, much to the apparent hurt of the affectionate hedgehog as her expression visibly deflated at the outright rejection. "Since you're one of the doctor's victims, I'm going to let that slide...but if you ever do anything like that again, you won't like what happens after."

"Shadow, what's the matter with you?" Aurora whimpered.

"Aurora."

The light pink hedgehog turned to see Silver and the others looking at her solemnly, and her eyes widened as she made the mental connection. The figure standing in front of her was without a doubt the being she knew as Shadow the Hedgehog...

But it wasn't _her_ Shadow.

Sighing sadly to herself, Aurora wiped her eyes with her sleeve and took a deep, shaky breath to try and get her raging emotions in check. _"I hate this, he's right in front of me and I can't even get near him...I just hope I can still save face."_ Turning back to the stoic form of her future boyfriend (she hoped), Aurora plastered on a fake smile that she hoped looked convincing enough. "Sorry about that, it's just...I never thought I'd get to meet you in person, I'm...your biggest fan." her voice trailed off at the end as her heart cracked a little more at being forced to suppress its love for him.

"I see," Shadow stepped closer and gave Aurora the usual cool stare he used to make sure he had someone's attention. "Well know this, I've had my fill of random strangers coming up to me to express their admiration for one lifetime."

"It happened _one time!"_

The black hedgehog chose to ignore Amy's outburst and continued where he left off. "I've come to learn the value of mercy, so I'll forgive you this time. Don't do it again."

"Understood." Aurora rubbed her arm and looked down in sadness, barely contained tears filling her eyes as she turned to go back to the friends she came to the past with, and she made her way to the back of the group to hide her face from everyone else.

"Ok then," Tails coughed into his fist. "Now that that's settled," he turned back to the newcomers of the group. "So you saw Sonic down there, what happened?"

"I have no idea," Rouge shrugged. "After Shadow went after him, I went around and gathered everyone together so Shadow could teleport us out of there before things got too hairy."

"It's clear that whatever's happening to Sonic, it's hurting him." Shadow had gone back to his usual stoic stance with his arms crossed over his chest and a neutral expression on his face. "That creature, he calls himself Ba'Gan, he-" Shadow suddenly stopped talking.

"He...what?" Amy asked.

"I hear something!" the black hedgehog said in a hushed tone.

"Yeah, so do I."

"Same here."

Both Yukon and Rouge concurred with the black hedgehog's suspicions, and moments later they got their proof that there was something, as a blue hedgehog suddenly burst through the floor of the room and landed in front of them, panting like a rabid dog and his eyes blood red with rage. "You didn't truly believe you could get away with that, did you?" Ba'Gan paid no mind to the fact that everyone was now on their guard, and his eyes locked onto Shadow who was also in a defensive stance. "You!" he pointed an accusing finger. "You will pay for attempting to rip my power away from me! Now you will suffer the wrath of Ba'Gan!"

"So far you've been all talk and no action," Shadow scoffed. "Back up your words and maybe I'll start taking you seriously." Shadow called upon the power of the Chaos Emeralds as they rose and began swirling around him as he transformed back into his super form just as Ba'Gan did the same. "So, ready for round two?"

"Die!" Ba'Gan charged towards Shadow and tackled him outside, shattering the glass doors. Together they rose into the air until Shadow managed to break free with a harsh kick to Ba'Gan's abdomen, which he then followed up with a brutal uppercut that sent him flying high into the sky. After recovering, Ba'Gan roared in rage. "You continue to resist! I have never met such an ignorant race in the entirety of my existence, you are only making your pending death that much more agonizing the longer this goes on!"

"You're still talking," Shadow smirked. "Now I'm starting to wonder who I'm fighting, Sonic talks too much too." the black hedgehog then swung his arm back as energy formed in front of his fist. "Chaos Spear!" Whipping his arm forward, Shadow launched a sharp blast of chaos energy careening towards Ba'Gan, but he managed to dodge the attack. "First thing you've managed to do right this whole day, for someone claiming to be this all-powerful being, you aren't that effective."

"Do _not_ patronize me!"

The battle in the air continued, and the rest of the group (minus the recovering Omega) rushed outside to witness it taking place. "Tails, can you hit Sonic with your Gene Splicer from here?!" Amy exclaimed hopefully.

The fox boy shook his head. "I don't _dare_ try to use it right now, they're moving so fast that if I tried to hit Sonic, I'd probably miss and I might even hit _Shadow,_ and if _that_ happened, I don't even want to _imagine_ what might happen to him."

"Then maybe we can hold him still somehow!" Knuckles exclaimed suddenly.

"Oh sure, why don't you go up there and give golden boy a hug? That'll work."

The echidna turned and growled at the ever-antagonistic thief. "Do you have a better idea?!"

"I think _I_ might have one!" All eyes turned to Silver, who looked at his hands for a moment before looking up into the sky where Ba'Gan and Shadow were still duking it out. "Maybe _I_ can use my psychokinesis and hold him still for you!" Silver's body glowed with a cyan outline as he took off into the sky to join the battle between the two super forms.

"Silver wait!" Blaze's shout came too late, as the psychic hedgehog had already taken off. "I hope he isn't in over his head."

"Uh, I don't think it's Silver we need to worry about."

Blaze turned around to look at what Yukon was referring to, and her eyes widened as she beheld an army of Metal Sonic replicas, and what appeared to be replicas of none other than Shadow the Hedgehog. "How...how can this be?"

"Look like ol' Eggy's playing dirty this time around," Rouge clenched her fists. "Those are some of his old Shadow Androids!"

"How flattering that you remember." the group jumped back as a giant robot landed in front of them, with none other than Eggman riding in the cockpit on its head with Orbot and Cubot there with him. "I just couldn't resist joining in on the fun, so I thought I'd debut one of my latest mechs, behold the awesome power of the Egg Titan!" The Egg Titan was a large robot about as tall as the buildings around the area, and it appeared to have a face with sharp jagged teeth and angry red eyes. Spikes were underneath its long nose to resemble a mustache, and in its fists was a large sword and shield.

"Somehow you're the one I'm the _least_ worried about Eggman!" Amy summoned her hammer and got into a battle ready stance, and the other soon followed her lead. "Think we can take him Tails?" the girl whispered.

Tails had a hurricane bomb in his hand ready to throw at will. "I dunno Amy, but if we don't try...well, you know." Screwing on a determined expression, Tails looked up at Eggman and pulled his arm back a little further. "Ok Eggman, you want a fight? You got one!"

The mad scientist cackled. "And you think that measly little firecracker will be able to damage _my_ fabulous creation?"

The fox boy smirked and heaved his hurricane bomb, as it flew in-between the legs of the Egg Titan and blew up some of the robots standing behind him, and immediately the battle picked up as the robots advanced. "Keep Eggman busy! I'm gonna fly up and wait for a chance to use the Gene Splicer!"

"You got it Tails!" Knuckles slammed his fists together and started punching out robots left and right as they came. "Step right up, there's plenty for everybody!"

While most of the team engaged the multiple Metal Sonic replicas and Shadow Androids, Blaze and Gemerl were working on defeating the Egg Titan before it could cause some major damage. "You know you made such a big deal about this new mech of yours Egghead, but it still looks like the same ol' junk to me!"

Eggman swung the giant robot's sword in response to the gizoid's sass, but it was a clean miss as Gemerl was much too fast for the bulky mech. "Maybe if you would just hold still, I could show you just how powerful my Egg Titan is!"

"Uh huh, sure, can I go play with your robot army? They're a lot more fun than you are!"

The scientist growled and used the mech's shield to take a swing at Gemerl, but again he missed as Gemerl leaped over the attack and then redirected himself so that he slammed his outstretched foot into the chest of the robot, nearly knocking it over. "You miserable hunk of scrap! I should have never revived you! You could've been the key to world domination, but instead you chose to return to being what you were before my brilliant improvisations!"

"You say that like it's a bad thing!"

Then Blaze took a turn to attack, as she wrapped herself in fire and drilled into the robot's chest with a powerful spinning kick that again nearly knocked the mech over. "You shall regret trying to hurt my friends Doctor, that I swear!"

Eggman turned to glare at the fiery cat girl, and it was then that his brilliant mind came to a startling realization. "So, _you're_ here as well! That must means the Sol Emeralds are nearby." Eggman rubbed his palms together as an evil grin spread across his face. "Excellent, those will certainly come in handy!"

"You'll never have them!"

"Don't be so sure my dear," Eggman raised a finger. "When I set my brilliant mind to something, I seldom fail."

"Unless Sonic's involved, then you always lose."

The grin immediately vanished and Eggman took another swing at the loud-mouthed gizoid, and this time he made contact as Gemerl was slammed into a nearby building from the impact and slumped to the floor. "That'll teach _you_ to badmouth one who is so obviously your superior," then Eggman turned the mech to glare at the on guard cat girl. "Now it's your turn, get a load of this!" Pressing a button on his console, the Egg Titan suddenly stood upright and several missiles came flying out of its back all targeting Blaze.

The Sol Guardian's eyes widened in shock and she began running as fast as she could to avoid the missiles, trying desperately to avoid running into a teammate and getting them blown up in the process. "Everyone out of the way!"

Meanwhile up in the air, Silver was struggling to keep up with the dueling Shadow and Ba'Gan, who were moving so fast that every time he tried to focus his powers, they would both be gone and he would have to try again. "This is ridiculous, I can't even keep up with where they are half the time!" The psychic hedgehog glanced down at the battle below, and he saw everyone holding their own against the robot army who were clearly too crowded to be fully effective. But then his pupils shrank when he saw Blaze get blown back by an exploding missile courtesy of the giant robot below. "Blaze!" Silver reacted immediately and flew in front of the final missile that would've killed the vulnerable princess, and he focused his psychokinesis towards the offending artillery and stopped it in its tracks. "Have a taste of your own medicine Eggman!"

"Oh dear." Silver had given a determined grunt as he sent the missile back towards his giant robot, and Eggman quickly pressed the eject button as his Egg Mobile came flying out of the Egg Titan just before the missile destroyed it. "Do any of you have any idea how much building these robots cost? It isn't cheap I assure you!"

"Then maybe you should stop wasting your money," Knuckles slammed his fists together as he walked up to the doctor with a satisfied grin. "You stop building robots, and we'll stop smashing 'em."

"With a name like Robotnik, building robots is a big part of what I do." Eggman looked around and noticed that all of the heroes were now glaring angrily at him amongst a sea of scrap metal and sparking wires. "Of course in hindsight, it would appear that deploying such a large number of them in such a tight area hindered my robots' ability in combat. Lesson learned."

"You keep learning the wrong lesson! Lemme teach you the right one again!" Amy leaped up to smash Eggman with her hammer, but her trajectory was suddenly interrupted by a lightning-fast black figure that tackled her to the ground and held her there. "Uh oh, missed an android!"

"Excellent work Shadow Android!" Eggman turned to the large band of heroes who all looked extremely angry at him. "Now then, I'll make this simple for you. If any of you try to save her, I'll have Shadow Android kill her!" As if in response to the threat, the Android's arm turned into a missile launcher, and the explosive was now aimed directly at the frightened pink hedgehog's head. "So, does anyone want to try and stop me from going on my merry way?"

No one on the ground said anything, but Amy's situation hadn't gone unnoticed. "Shadow! Amy's in trouble!" Tails shouted.

Hearing that caused Shadow's eyes to widen as he looked down to see Amy at the mercy of one of his robotic doppelgangers. "Those pathetic Shadow Androids! The doctor has gone too far this time!" Unfortunately, Shadow's loss of focus caused him to become vulnerable for a moment, and Ba'Gan took that opportunity to slam both fists into Shadow's head, which sent him hurtling towards the ground where he landed so hard that he formed a crater in the concrete, the Chaos Emeralds surrounding him as he was knocked unconscious and out of his super form.

"Shadow no!" Aurora was about to run over to the crater, but the moment she took a step, Amy gave out a shriek of her own as the Shadow Android reacted to Aurora's movement and pressed the armed missile into her head, waiting for the moment someone tried to rescue Amy. "You monster! Let her go!"

"I'm sorry, who are you again?" Eggman raised an eyebrow. "I only acknowledge the pitiful pleas of heroes whom I've been properly introduced to." Eggman smirked a little bit at the frustrated growl Aurora gave. "At any rate, it doesn't matter. I am a generous man, and I will call off the Shadow Android as soon as Ba'Gan and I safely make our escape with the Chaos Emeralds in our possession."

"DOCTOR!"

Everyone - including Eggman - was shocked to see Ba'Gan flying down at reckless speeds to confront the scientist as he grabbed him by the front of his coat and snarled at him. "How dare you?! That female is imperative to my mission, she must not be destroyed!"

"Wait just a moment Ba'Gan, I-"

"Have your robot take her!" Ba'Gan yanked on Eggman's coat again. "If you don't I will be forced to take matters into my own hands!"

While the two argued over which course of action to take, Yukon silently made his way over to Silver. "You may never get a better chance, if you're going to do it, do it now!" he whispered.

"But what about Amy?!" Silver whispered back.

"Leave that to me," Yukon silently made his way into the back of the large group, and he managed to find his way to a tall tree. He swiftly climbed up to the top and surveyed the area, and as soon as he spotted his next destination, he jumped off the tree and glided to the snow-covered roof of the building behind the villains unnoticed. "Boy I hope this works." Crawling as close as he could to the edge without being spotted, Yukon looked down and spotted his target. Then he looked over to Silver and gave him an 'a-ok' hand signal. "Here goes nothing!"

"Boss!"

"What is it Cubot?!" the moment he turned to glare at his little yellow robot for interrupting, he saw a streak of beige go through his line of sight and land on the Shadow Android, which forced it to have to change its main objective as it was held back by Yukon holding its missile launcher away from Amy, allowing her to escape. "No! Ba'Gan, stop him!" the doctor's eyes widened when he saw Ba'Gan trying desperately to move, but some form of cyan energy was apparently keeping the growling, snarling alien in place. "What?!"

"I can't hold him for much longer! He's too strong!" Silver strained as he fought to keep his energy focused. "Tails, do it now!"

"O-Ok!" Tails aimed his Gene Splicer right at the super-powered form of Sonic. "Sorry to break up such a close relationship!" Tails fired, and a purple, electric beam flew out of the device and hit its target. "Yes! Direct hit!"

A blinding light forced everyone in the area to shade their eyes as they tried to discern exactly what was happening. From inside the sphere of light, it appeared as if one being was somehow being split into two. "What...is happening to me?!" the voice of Ba'Gan shouted in agony.

"We're being...split apart!" that was Sonic's voice, and it was clear from his voice that the separation was hurting both of them.

By this time, Tails had flown down and was now watching the spectacle with everyone else, and Amy ran over to him with her hands clasped in front of her chest with an anxious expression. "What's happening Tails? Is Sonic gonna be ok?!"

All the fox boy could do was shrug helplessly. "I don't know."

Both Ba'Gan and Sonic continued to grunt, groan and cry out in pain as the Gene Splicer's beam fought to separate the DNAs of the both of them. "I...must...maintain...this form!" Ba'Gan roared as he fought the machine's influence, and for a moment it appeared that the second being that was emerging was slowly getting sucked back in.

"Sonic no! Fight him! Please!"

The true blue hedgehog had nearly exhausted himself from this ordeal, but hearing the desperate pleas coming from Amy and the rest of his friends who were also now cheering him on, Sonic gritted his teeth and gave one final push. "If you think...I'm going back to sharing a body with you...you're more cracked than Eggman!" Sonic pulled even further away, and he could feel the resistance increasing as Ba'Gan desperately tried to keep his hold on him. "No way slime ball, I'm through being housemates...now _let...me...go!"_

The light intensified for just a brief moment more, forcing everyone to look away before vanished altogether. Once they were able to see again, they looked down to the ground, and everyone's eyes widened in horror at the sight.

Laying on the ground was none other than the inert, motionless body of Sonic the Hedgehog.  
_

 **A/N: Eh heh...so yeah, how about that cliffhanger? *Sees angry readers everywhere* Yes...well, please don't hate me. I have a very good reason for doing what I'm doing, all will be revealed in future chapters...as for Shadow and Aurora...well, let's be honest, this isn't her Shadow, he's still rough around most of his edges and isn't into being kissed by total strangers...that's understandable...right?**

 **Yeah, y'all wanna lynch me for being so mean to the characters. BUT IT WILL GET BETTER...eventually...um, yeah. So, if you enjoyed this chapter, leave a review for me and lemme know what you think. Hopefully I'll be able to get the next one out sooner. See you all next time when we find out what has befallen Sonic and Ba'Gan!**


	9. Consequences

**So from what I can tell, there wasn't a whole lot of good things to say about the previous chapter. I'm trying to keep a decent balance of action, drama and comedy so I don't become one note like a lot of Sonic games. Sonic 06 was ALL drama, From Sonic Colors and beyond is pretty much ALL comedy, I'm trying to find the right blend. Hopefully this one will be better.**

 **The title of the chapter is significant this time and isn't just made up for the sake of having a title, so that's an improvement I guess. Anyways, hope you guys enjoy this chapter. I own nothing except the story and Yukon "Houdini" the Sugar Glider. Aurora the Hedgehog belongs to E-vay.  
** _

For a moment, time seemed to stand still as everyone gathered in the small town square of Blue Ridge stared in shock at the unmoving form of the planet's greatest hero. Sonic the Hedgehog had been freed from his role as unwilling avatar of an evil space alien, but at what cost?

"Sonic?" Amy slowly walked up to Sonic's body and knelt down in front of it, reaching for his wrist to check for a pulse. Her heart dropped when she felt a very weak and thready beat. "Tails!"

The fox boy immediately rushed over and pulled out his scanner, and he shook his head anxiously when the readings came on screen. "Not good. He's alive, but he's in shock, we need to get him medical attention if he's gonna make it, and considering the circumstances, I don't think the Blue Ridge Emergency Center is gonna cut it." Tails looked up at Amy with a determined expression. "We need to get him back to my lab, and fast."

"Unfortunately, that's not an option." The heroes all looked up at Eggman after he spoke, and with a snap of his fingers, the Shadow Android advanced once more and prepared to attack. "Ingenious I must admit. You've managed to separate their DNAs from each other, but it looks like we've _both_ lost as a result."

"Hey Boss?"

"What is it _now?"_ Eggman grumbled as Cubot once again interrupted his monologuing, but when he turned to see what the yellow robot was pointing at, a sinister grin slowly spread across his face until it practically reached from ear to ear. "Well then, it looks like I've won after all."

"What are you talking about _now_ Eggman?" Knuckles raised a threatening fist.

"See for yourself," Eggman made a grand gesture behind him. "Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to someone whom I'm sure you're all well acquainted with by now. Say hello to my ticket to world domination, Ba'Gan the Incursite!"

Gasps, murmurs and angry growls were heard from the gathered heroes as they watched a glowing, super-powered form of what appeared to be Sonic rise up from behind the Egg Mobile. The body was limp and for a moment didn't move, until a few seconds later when its head slowly rose and its eyes opened to reveal an even more horrifying image than ever before. The eyes were now maniacal red spirals that seemed like they would be most fitting in children's nightmares, and with sharp claws protruding from the white gloves he wore and the sharp, jagged fangs now residing inside his mouth, he truly did appear to be a monster.

"That...was unlike anything I've ever experienced." Ba'Gan spoke for the first time since the separation, and his voice now bore very little resemblance to Sonic's, as it sounded much more evil and distorted. Ba'Gan looked at his palms and smiled in wicked delight. "I've somehow managed to retain that insipid creature's form," his fists clenched as he felt the power surging inside him. "But now I no longer feel or hear his presence keeping me from utilizing his strength to the fullest. Now I am truly unstoppable!"

As the monster that was now Ba'Gan cackled evilly, Amy cast a worried glance in Tails' direction. "What are we gonna do?" she whispered.

The young genius gave a similar nervous look back. "I-I don't know."

But then, Ba'Gan's cackling seemed to become less intense, and it continued to weaken until it was nothing more than a weak chuckle. Moments later, Ba'Gan powered down and collapsed to the ground, completely unconscious. "Well, that was _almost_ a dramatic moment." Orbot commented.

Eggman growled lowly at that. "Shadow Android, collect Ba'Gan and place him into the Egg Mobile, then retrieve the Chaos Emeralds."

"Not gonna happen!" Knuckles quickly charged to attack, but he was suddenly knocked to the ground when a blue form jumped him from above.

"Ahh, Metal Sonic, perfect timing." Eggman grinned even as the Shadow Android dropped the unconscious blue hedgehog into his craft. "As you can see everyone, I've made it a point to always be one step ahead of you this time around. Now I realize that you all would eventually defeat my original Metal Sonic and my Shadow Android, but after Metal Sonic generates a new army for you to fight, you'll have wasted so much time that Sonic will likely be gone by the time it was over."

"You miserable-!"

"No," Tails held a hand up to stop the fiery cat girl. "He's right, we gotta find a way to help Sonic, there's not a lot of time left."

"Yes, help Sonic and allow me to regroup, we'll continue this battle another day." Eggman nodded to the Shadow Android, and the robotic version of the Ultimate Life Form headed over to the crater where the emeralds were kept. Then an explosion was heard from behind the scientist, and he turned to see Shadow glaring at the remains of the android he'd just destroyed.

"You're a fool to think those useless piles of scrap would be any match for the one and only Ultimate Life Form."

"So it would seem." Eggman turned back to the large group of heroes, the majority of them still sending him venomous glares as he spoke. "Fine, keep the emeralds for now, it's merely a minor setback in my plan." Metal Sonic jumped into the Egg Mobile as it rose into the sky to leave. "Be forewarned, this is far from over."

As the Egg Mobile vanished from sight, the team was brought back to the situation at hand. "If we don't get him to my lab soon he's done for." Tails turned to the black hedgehog standing behind him. "Shadow, can you teleport us to my lab in the Mystic Ruins?"

Wordlessly, the hedgehog nodded and collected the Chaos Emeralds into his arms. "Someone go get Omega." Moments later the hulking robot was brought out of the building with a cyan outline surrounding him, and the downed gizoid floated past him with the same outline surrounding him. Shadow momentarily raised an eyebrow at this, but he chose not to question it at this time and focused on the emeralds. "Everyone stay close," the heroes all crowded together around him. "Chaos Control!" Instantly, they were gone, with only a sea of scrap metal and some nearly demolished buildings to indicate they were ever there.

It only took seconds for the heroes to reappear inside Tails' workshop, and it was barely another second before Tails rushed over to his computer and pressed a fairly large button on his computer console. But just as soon as Tails got to work, both Sticks and Yukon fell onto their hands and knees. "Hey, are you two alright?!" Silver asked in concern.

The sugar glider raised a finger in response, and his cheeks bulged for a moment before going back to normal, although his face was a rather unnatural color for him. "That was a pretty rough trip, I feel like I left my stomach back in Blue Ridge."

"Bring Sonic over here, hurry!" Tails' shout got their attention back to more pressing matters, and Knuckles reacted immediately as he took Sonic's unconscious body over to the computer, where Tails was busy adjusting his chair into what appeared to be a hospital bed. "Right there Knuckles," Tails turned to grab some loose wires from a compartment in the computer console, and once in his possession, he pressed the ends of the wires to Sonic's body and pressed the same button on the console again, and the screen flashed to a medical reading of Sonic's vitals.

"Is there anything we can do to help Tails?" Cream asked anxiously.

The fox boy didn't respond and just hurried over to the compartment again, and he returned with a small clear device that he promptly placed over Sonic's muzzle and flipped the switch that was attached to it. "That ventilator should help Sonic breathe, but there isn't much else I can do." Tails ran his fingers through his fur and sighed. "I can't come up with any medically sound way to explain this. He hasn't lost any blood, the best way I can summarize what's wrong with him is that the shock of being split in two was too much for him, which is probably why Ba'Gan fainted too. He just had the power of the emeralds to keep him going a little longer."

"Will he be ok?" Amy asked with her hands clasped in front of her face in worry.

Tails just shook his head. "I don't know." his brow furrowed as a determined expression came upon his face. "But what I do know is this...if anyone could pull through, it's Sonic."

"Tails is right!" Cream stepped up and turned around to face everyone. "Mr. Sonic would never give up, I'm sure he'll be ok, and then when he wakes up we can all save the world again!"

Amy did crack a small smile at her younger friend's enthusiasm, but it was short-lived as her eyes locked back onto Sonic's unconscious body, the computer he was hooked up to making a faint beeping noise as it monitored his weak heartbeat. "I hope you're right."

"Well while we're waiting for Big Blue to come back to the land of the living, I think I'll go inform G.U.N. of the situation." Rouge turned to walk out the door of the lab. "If you want, you could help out Omega a little bit, just a suggestion kiddo."

"And uh, I think _your_ robot could use a few repairs too." Silver pointed a thumb over to Gemerl, who had reactivated and was wobbling around like he was drunk.

"Hey guys," the gizoid pointed at the ceiling, his speech slurred as he spoke. "I just counted how many lights there are in the ceiling, wanna know how many there are?"

"Uh no, that's ok," Tails hurried over and began pushing the three buttons in Gemerl's chest in a specific order, inadvertently making the gizoid squirm and laugh as if he were being tickled. But eventually he shut down as Tails completed the shut down sequence. With a weary sigh, Tails dragged Gemerl over to where Omega was still in recovery mode, and he grabbed a screwdriver out of his tool belt and began work on some emergency repairs. "I'll try to get these guys back up and running, I'll also need to come up with a plan to stop Eggman in case Ba'Gan happens to survive too."

"And maybe something for my stomach? Please?"

"I'd like to know why we didn't get sick the first time we did this." Sticks growled even as she held back her heaving stomach. "If only I had access to the ingredients for my signature jungle elixir!"

"It's ok you two," Cream and Cheese went over to help the two ailing Mobians and got them on their feet. "Let's go see if I can make you some tea, that's what Mommy does whenever _I_ have an upset stomach."

"You do that Cream," Tails wiped his brow for a moment and turned to the other members of his rather large team. "There's not much we can do for now, so I guess you all can go do your own thing until we've planned our next move."

The group went off to various areas of the lab, leaving Tails alone to work on the two robotic members of the team. All except for one. "Hey uh, Tails, have you seen Aurora around here?" Silver asked.

Tails looked up and frowned. "Uh...no, actually. Not since we got here. Wonder where she is."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At this point, there weren't many things that Aurora the Hedgehog could grasp onto that was really concrete in her mind. So far she'd made a fool of herself twice and it was because she was seeing all of these familiar places and people, forgetting that she was nearly twenty years in the past. All of the rules had changed. But there was one thing she knew for sure was still the same as it was in her time.

Tails' workshop had its balcony.

She always enjoyed watching the sunset from there, and she relinquished a small smile as she took comfort in the fact that not everything had turned topsy-turvy on her. She knew she was having trouble adjusting, that didn't really bother her much as long as she didn't give away she was from the future. But after seeing her father on the brink of death and the heartbreaking revelation that this living, breathing Shadow the Hedgehog not only didn't care for her, but didn't even know her...that was the straw that broke the camel's back for her.

Looking down as she leaned her elbows against the railing of her uncle's balcony, she saw Shadow walking over to Rouge who had her hand next to her ear as she conversed with G.U.N. She whipped her head around and squeezed her eyes shut as she felt her already broken heart crack a little more. She hated the thought of seeming fragile, but everyone had their breaking point. For Aurora, to have Shadow right in front of her with the knowledge that he wasn't the Shadow she fell in love with was it.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" The light-pink hedgehog turned to see the young version of her mother looking at her with a sorrowful expression. Aurora closed her eyes and just turned away, giving the slightest of nods with her back facing Amy. "I know how you feel Aurora," Amy went over and leaned on the railing next to the currently older hedgehog. "That awful feeling you get when you're reminded that the love you have for someone goes unrequited, the awful feeling in your heart when the one you love is in trouble and there really isn't anything you can do about it...I've dealt with _all_ of it these past seven years, the feeling never really dulls."

Aurora chuckled in spite of herself. "I don't think you really know how I'm feeling."

"What makes you say that?"

"It's personal," Aurora hung her head and shook it despondently. "Trust me, you wouldn't understand."

Amy put one hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow. "I understand plenty." the hammer-wielding hedgehog looked down to where Shadow and Rouge were now conversing. "Right down there is a man you're willing to give your life for, and he barely even knows you exist. That's exactly what _I_ had to deal with for a long time with Sonic!" Amy placed a comforting hand on Aurora's shoulder, which prompted the older hedgehog to turn her head to look at her. "If there's one bit of advice I can give you it's this...don't ever give up! It's taken a lot of doing, but Sonic and I are finally really close friends, and I'm still working on getting him to take it one step further! When will that happen?" Amy shrugged. "Beats the heck out of me, but I do know this...if I had given up instead of fighting for what I wanted, I wouldn't be where I am today, and I'm not gonna let you give up either! We're in the same boat you and I! So instead of moping around and feeling sad that Shadow rejected you, you need to make sure you earn his respect! That's the first step!"

After hearing what her young mother had to say, the photokinetic hedgehog smiled and felt her heart heal a little bit. Although she would never know it, Amy had just displayed one of the things Aurora loved most about her, and for a brief moment, Aurora saw Amy Rose as her mother, and not just Amy Rose. She shook her head to remove that mental image before it got too comfortable in her head, but it did wonders for her morale and for that she was grateful. "Thanks...Amy." she started walking down from the balcony and turned to look over her shoulder before she left. "I really needed to hear that from you."

"No problem!" the darker-pink hedgehog waved a hand dismissively before giving Aurora an excited smile. "Now go get 'im!"

Aurora also smiled, but hers was a bit more mischievous. Of course Amy had missed the veiled message that she sent her, but somehow it made her feel better to acknowledge Amy as her mother even if she didn't realize it. "I will," she nodded. "And I think you should go keep Sonic company, who knows? Maybe having you nearby will revive him!"

"Oh I already planned to do that, I just wanted to make sure _you_ were ok first!" Amy turned to lean her back against the railing. "You know, I feel better after talking to you too, we're pretty alike ya know?"

Aurora smirked. "You have no idea." With that said she bolted, and the first thing she saw upon entering the main area of the workshop was Blaze standing over Tails as he did some delicate work on Gemerl's robotic brain, no doubt trying to multitask as Blaze discussed strategies with him. Then looking to her left, she saw Knuckles standing in the corner, leaning against the wall with one of Tails' scanners in his oversized mitt. If she had to take a guess, Aurora figured he was using the security camera Tails had installed on Angel Island to keep an eye on the Master Emerald.

"Hey Aurora!"

Aurora turned her head to see Sticks hurrying over to her with a steaming hot mug in her hand. As she reached her, the badger took a sip of whatever liquid was in the beige vessel and sighed after swallowing it. "I gotta tell ya," she whispered so no one else could hear. "Your aunt's tea, it's awesome! I felt better right away!"

Aurora rolled her eyes and smirked. "And somehow you're surprised by this." she raised an eyebrow. "But why give in now when all this time you refused to drink anything she tried to give you in our time?"

"Because the liquid technology used to fry our brains and turn us into mindless zombies won't be invented for another seventeen years, eight months, two weeks and three days! Duh! Your aunt's always been too trusting, poor thing never realized what she was slowly doing to herself." Sticks ignored the repeated eyeroll by her best friend and took another sip of the tea Cream had made for her. Then she pulled Aurora away from the others to look her in the eye. "Hey, I know the whole Shadow thing's been rough on you, so are you ok?"

The pink hedgehog gave a small smile and nodded. "Yeah, I'm ok," the smile grew slightly. "Mom just gave me a little pep talk, it's weird how even though she's technically younger than me now, she still sounds so much like who she'll eventually become." Aurora pumped a fist. "So now I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna follow in my mom's footsteps and earn Shadow's respect, once I do that, things can only get better from there!"

Sticks smiled and punched her best friend's arm, not noticing how Aurora was now rubbing her arm after the blow. "That's the spirit! Go claim your man!"

Aurora nodded and rushed outside, where Shadow and Rouge were standing next to each other with their backs turned to the workshop. From what she could tell, the two G.U.N. agents were speaking to each other in hushed tones, but she couldn't make out the topic. She shook her head and took a deep breath as she refocused on her goal. She walked up to the agents and cleared her throat, which got their attention as they looked over their shoulders to look at her. "Hey, just wanted to say thanks for helping us out back there, you really came through for us!"

Rouge took the compliment with a sneaky grin. "Oh no problem hun, it's just part of what we do." her eyes flashed to Shadow for a moment before she began walking away. "If you two will excuse me, I think I'll go check in on Omega, someone's gotta make sure he doesn't blow that cute little fox boy's home to smithereens." she looked over her shoulder and grinned again. "Now you two behave yourselves, m'kay?"

Shadow paid no mind to Rouge's incessant teasing, or the laughter that rang out until she walked through the door of the lab. At this point, he was used to her trying to get under his skin. He briefly glanced at Aurora, who appeared to be fascinated with the ground all of a sudden. "Is there something I can help you with?" he asked coolly.

Aurora's head jerked up and she shook it in a denial. "N-No, not really. I just...I wanted to apologize for the way I acted earlier. I tend to act on impulse sometimes."

"Apology accepted." Shadow turned away and crossed his arms as he looked into the orange and pink sky.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Aurora slowly walked until she was flanking Shadow's left, making sure to remain a respectful distance away from the brooding hedgehog. She looked into the sky as well and smiled. "You know, it's amazing. It's times like these when you take a step back and really admire the beauty and the majesty of what nature has to offer. How often do we take something as simple as a sunset for granted in our lives?"

Shadow scoffed and turned to leave. "I find it very difficult to take anything for granted. You need to have something to take for granted first."

"Like friendship?" The black hedgehog stopped for a moment at that statement, and Aurora took it as her cue to continue. "I know how much you've done for this world, and I know that you did it all because of the deep friendship you have in your heart for Maria." she flinched when the black hedgehog suddenly turned around and glared at her, but she quickly regained her fire and continued. "Don't act so surprised, it's not like it's top secret or anything. You are Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate Life Form created by Gerald Robotnik, and the best friend of Maria Robotnik, the girl you made a lifelong promise to. That's why you don't take friendship for granted. Underneath that grumphog exterior," she smiled when Shadow shot her another glare. "There's a heart of gold that values friendship and loyalty more than anything else in the world. It's who you are."

The Ultimate Life Form seemed to stare through Aurora for a few moments, before finally breathing out a low chuckle and smirking. "I'll give you credit for one thing, you've certainly done your homework regarding my past, but if I were you, I'd make it a point to learn that jumping to conclusions often makes you say really stupid things."

"Yep," Aurora crossed her arms over her chest and gave her own smirk, this one of the knowing variety. "Just like the stubborn old grump I imagined, you can deny it if you want, but I know it's true. Trust me, I know you better than you think I do."

"Trust me, you don't." Shadow turned to walk away again, but he flinched when the pink hedgehog suddenly appeared in front of his face with what appeared to be a challenging grin. "You're in my way."

"I know I am."

Shadow moved to go around her, but she just stepped in front of him again and again with each move he made to go around. "You're beginning to irritate me, get out of my way before I move you out."

Aurora grinned as she sensed a great opportunity. It would require her to do something she normally wasn't comfortable doing, but given the circumstances, she would gladly make an exception this time. "Tell ya what Shadow, how about you and I do a quick sparring session? You win, and I get out of your way. But if I win, I get to hang with you and you don't get to say a word about it."

"I have better things to do than entertain your baseless challenges."

"Translation, the Ultimate Life Form is scared of getting beat by a girl! Admit it, you don't want to spar because you're afraid you'll lose!"

"Your gender has nothing to do with anything, and I don't want to spar because I would end up hurting you."

"Shadow the Hedgehog is backing down from a challenge! Someone call the presses!" Aurora then suddenly jumped back and put up her fists as she got into a battle stance. "Come on, first one to fall loses. At the very least I'll be able to get some training in so I'm ready for whatever comes my way in the future!"

"You're very stubborn." the black hedgehog sighed and shook his head. "Fine, I'll make this quick." he got into a stance as well. "Get ready."

"Believe me Shadow, I am _more_ than ready!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Silver was not happy. He had looked all over the lab and he'd failed to even get a glimpse of the proper shade of pink. He'd found the darker variety sitting by the unconscious Sonic, rubbing his knuckles as she watched the beeping of the medical monitor Tails had hooked the hero up to. That was definitely a touching scene, but not at all helpful to him.

"This is crazy, she's gotta be around here somewhere." Silver hurried into the main room again, and there he saw Blaze conversing with Tails. "Blaze!" he hurried over to the Sol Guardian as he got her attention with his outburst. "Sorry Tails," Silver looked down at him for a moment before looking the princess in the eyes. "Sorry for interrupting, but I really need to talk to you... _alone."_

Blaze quirked an eyebrow at this, but she eventually gave the fox boy she was standing over a curt nod before walking away, allowing him to put all his focus on repairing his robots. She followed Silver into an empty room and watched with curiosity as he closed the door and pressed his ear against it before looking at her with a nervous expression. "Is something the matter Silver? You seem very anxious."

"Where's Aurora?!" he blurted out.

"Aurora?" Blaze again quirked an eyebrow. "If I'm not mistaken, I believe I heard Rouge mention that she was outside with Shadow."

"She is?!" Silver ran past her to press his face against the window, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her standing in front of the black hedgehog, although he couldn't make out what they were discussing. "Thank goodness, I thought it might've already been too late."

The cat girl frowned and put her hands on her hips. "Alright Silver, what's going on? Why are you so worried about Aurora?"

"Because of Sonic!" Silver exclaimed as he turned back to look at her. He groaned when he saw her confused expression. "Don't you get it?! They're both in real danger!"

"Is this one of those time travel things you claim to know so much about?" Blaze replied skeptically. "If it is, then shouldn't Aurora still existing mean that Sonic pulls through just fine? She obviously can't be born if Sonic or Amy died, I honestly feel bad that we can't tell them everything will be alright."

The psychokinetic hedgehog shook his head. "No, that's the thing! See, based on the research that I've done over the past few years, in a situation like this, Aurora would still exist as long as Sonic was still technically alive! But that doesn't mean Sonic is guaranteed to pull through from this coma! Now, we could always travel back in time again if he _does_ die, but that would create even _more_ serious consequences!"

"Please Silver, the short version." Blaze sighed.

"Alright, you want the short version? Here it is." Silver sighed and looked the fiery cat girl right in the eye. "There's still a very real chance that Sonic could die, and we all know what that means for Aurora. We can't relax Blaze, nothing is set in stone. Unless we find something we can do to help or a miracle happens, we could lose Aurora to time...forever."  
_

 **A/N: So how was that? Was that a little better? I have the big picture in my head just fine but it's the little things in-between I'm trying to make work. Aurora is such an interesting character and I often find myself going back through E-vay's posts to learn more about her depending on the situation I'm making.**

 **Normally, Aurora wouldn't attempt to instigate a fight, but this isn't technically a FIGHT per say, it's a sparring match. Hey, if she can fight at all, she had to learn somehow. So what's Aurora's plan? Is Silver right to be worried? And the biggest question mark...will Sonic pull through? You never know folks, it may SEEM like it's obvious Sonic will survive, but this story has LOTS of room for plot twists. Don't get too comfy.**

 **Well, that's all I have to say. So if you liked this chapter (or the previous one), leave a review and let me know what you thought. You can also find me on my Tumblr account if you have questions about anything regarding the story. See you all next time!**


	10. Chain Reaction

**Phew, it's been a while to say the least. So the last time we left off, Aurora made a bet with Shadow over a sparring match. Gemerl showed what a drunk gizoid is like, and Amy and Aurora had a mother-daughter moment with Amy being aware of it.**

 **I apologize for how long it took for me to get this out, both time and inspiration were somewhat lacking with this. I knew I wanted to write a scene where Shadow and Aurora sparred, but I didn't wanna drag it out too long...and of course I'm a stickler for word count, a rather unfortunate trait of mine that I've picked up over the years.**

 **Anyway, enough of my excuses. Let's take care of those anonymous reviews, shall we?**

 **Yago: You'll get to read this sparring match between Shadow and Aurora now...as for that other part...well...you'll just have to see for yourself. Heh heh.**

 **Nightshade: Really appreciate the review! Thanks!**

 **Sunset: You'll get to see what happens next right now! Thanks so much for the review!**

 **Alright, that's done. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed this story, I really appreciate the support. And I hope E-vay is enjoying it too. I know she's been under a lot of stress these past few months, what will all those art thieves taking her work without permission and now her job eating up all her spare time.**

 **At least she's got a great guy in her life now who's clearly been making her happy. I'm happy for her as well, and I hope that this story also contributes to the bettering of her mood. Without further ado, on with the show! I own nothing except the story and Yukon "Houdini" the Sugar Glider. Aurora the Hedgehog belongs to E-vay.  
_**

Darkness. There was nothing but darkness surrounding him on all sides, running in any direction only led him to more of this seemingly eternal void of nothingness that he'd found himself trapped in. _"This is seriously messed up, where am I?"_ Sonic poured on the speed and accelerated faster and faster, the only sounds reaching his ears coming from the pounding of his feet against the ground and the pumping of his heart in his chest.

The last thing he could remember was being separated from Ba'Gan, he had memories of the pain he'd suffered from the ordeal, never had he felt anything like it before, like he was being ripped in two. "Well," he grinned in spite of his situation. "At least I know if _I_ felt it, that walking snot ball felt it too." While he did take some comfort in knowing that he wasn't the only one who'd had to deal with the agony of what happened, it still didn't answer the question of what was happening now.

Sonic continued to accelerate, reaching speeds only attainable by him. 300 miles per hour...500...800...his feet became nothing more than a blur underneath his torso as he sped ever faster, until he finally heard the familiar sound of a sonic boom in his wake as he broke the sound barrier. _"Guess I'll just keep going, seems like I'm alone here...wherever here is."_ Sonic continued to run in one direction for several minutes, the utter silence beginning to grate on his nerves as there seemed to be no end in sight even at his current speed.

Then he heard a faint cackle, and Sonic skidded to a sudden stop.

"Who's there?!" Sonic looked around warily, his muscles tensed and his fists clenched as he mentally prepared himself for battle. "That you snot rocket?! Why don't ya come out and face me?!" He heard the cackle again, this time a little louder. A chill ran down the hedgehog's spine as the realization that the laughter he'd heard sounded incredibly similar to his own voice. It was unnerving to say the least. "This game's gettin' old real quick! Make your move Ba'Gan!"

Suddenly light invaded the void of darkness and forced the blue hedgehog to shield his eyes with his arm to keep from being blinded. When he uncovered them, they immediately widened in shock as he was now standing in the middle of a grassy plain, the sky was now a brilliant shade of blue and the sound of birds flying overhead reached his ears. "I've gotta be dreaming."

"Sonic!"

Sonic quickly turned towards the sound of the voice he'd heard, and he saw Tails, Amy, Cream, and even Knuckles sitting around a picnic blanket, waving him over to enjoy the plethora of chili dogs that looked liked they'd been made from Amy's signature recipe. Sonic licked his lips with his mouth watering in anticipation. "Well, if this is a dream, I might as well make the best of it!" He was there in less than a second, and he eagerly took the chili dog Amy offered him. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth to take a bite, the rich and spicy aroma of Amy's homemade chili tempting him to swallow it whole.

But all he bit down on was air.

"What the?!" Sonic opened his eyes and whipped his head around as the environment had suddenly changed dramatically. Looking into the sky, Sonic saw nothing but a blood red hue, and he couldn't help but notice that the air itself seemed thicker than it was just moments ago. "What...what gives? Tails! Amy!" His calls were left unanswered...by the ones he was calling at least.

"Hello Sonic."

The hedgehog clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, he knew that voice all too well...it was his own voice, but far more sinister. "Ba'Gan!" Sonic turned and saw the alien creature standing there with an evil grin on his face with his arms crossed proudly over his chest. "About time you showed up, little word of advice, that smile doesn't look good on my face."

"It's not your face anymore, it's mine."

"I thought we went over this, _you're_ invading _my_ body, remember?" Sonic rotated his shoulder and bounced the tip of his shoe against the red grass before putting up his fists. "This is gonna bring a whole new meaning to the term 'fighting yourself.'"

Instead of answering, Ba'Gan merely cackled again and suddenly transformed into Sonic's golden super form, and the next thing Sonic knew, he was tumbling backwards as Ba'Gan had slammed into him hard. "You're such a fool, delaying the inevitable, perhaps you need a demonstration of just how weak you are!"

Sonic got back on his feet with a low growl, but his eyes quickly widened in horror and his stomach dropped when he looked past the floating Ba'Gan to see his friends, bloodied and badly bruised as they laid on the ground, completely unmoving. "No!"

"You've failed Sonic the Hedgehog, you can't stop me, I possess far more power than you could ever hope to muster. Your friends will die by your own hands, all except for the one called Amy, I still have big plans for her."

Sonic clenched his fists so tight that the bones in his hands made a cracking sound, and he glared up at Ba'Gan with his teeth bared in rage. "Over my dead body."

"I was hoping you'd say that...very well Sonic the Hedgehog, let's see just how much fight you have left in that miserable shell of yours."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shadow the Hedgehog considered himself to be one of the best fighters on the planet, perhaps even the universe. His unique blend of speed, strength and agility, along with his intelligence and of course his chaos abilities made him a force that any mortal would be foolish to challenge to a one-on-one battle.

Which made what was currently taking place extremely confusing.

The Ultimate Life Form had deemed it fit to take it easy on this Amy Rose-caliber fangirl who seemed all too thirsty for his attention, challenging him to a fight he knew he would win without even putting forth much of an effort, but so far she'd been able to match his every move, and that fact was unsettling.

"C'mon Shadow, that all ya got?!"

"I suppose it hasn't occurred to you that I'm purposely holding back so you don't get hurt."

"It occurred, but I can tell you're not."

Shadow growled lowly and went in for another assault. He threw a swift punch and then twisted his torso to launch his foot out for a hard back kick, but just like before, Aurora was somehow able to dodge each attack while still staying in range for an attack of her own. "I have to admit, you're good." he smirked and then suddenly disappeared from view.

"Uh oh."

Shadow reappeared right next to her and grunted in exertion as he unleashed a powerful Chaos Burst attack, with chaos energy swirling around him in a pulsating sphere that would've easily sent her flying. "But I'm-" Shadow's eyes suddenly widened as he looked around to see that Aurora was nowhere to be found. "How did she-"

"Up here Grumpy!"

The Ultimate Life Form looked up and saw the young woman bearing down on him from above, and just a second later he was knocked back by a spin dash that left the hedgehog's mind reeling, as he slammed his hand into the ground to keep from sliding away, leaving marks in the ground in front of him. "That attack felt a lot like Sonic's." he said to himself before getting back up. "It's almost as if she knows what I'm going to do before I do it."

Aurora smiled to herself as she got back into a battle-ready stance, her plan was going better than she'd hoped. Shadow was unable to break through her defensive strategies, as she'd trained with him for a long time before this match...not that he knew that. _"For once, it looks like being from the future is actually working to my advantage."_ Aurora then charged forward with a burst of speed, and she started running in circles around the black hedgehog as she activated her photokinesis, creating after-images of herself that clearly had Shadow struggling to focus. "Now you see me!" she then shimmered out of sight completely along with her after-images.

"Now what's she doing?" Shadow then gave out a grunt as he was smacked from behind by another spin dash, only an impressive display of acrobatics on his part kept him from landing on his back and giving Aurora the sparring match victory, instead he was able to twist his torso around and land on his feet. "Ok then, I think it's time I started trying." Shadow clenched his fists and leaped up into the air, whipping his arm back as energy enveloped his glove. "Chaos..."

Aurora looked up and her eyes widened as Shadow prepared to launch his signature move. "Oh I hate when he does this."

"Spear!"

The pink hedgehog took off running around the field to try and avoid the barrage of energy spears raining down from above, but then she was faced with a new problem when Shadow suddenly appeared right in front of her again with his fist reeled back for what would've surely been a finishing blow. Thinking fast, Aurora leaped over him just as he swung his fist, and when he made a move to follow, she twisted her torso around in midair and stretched out her hand as if she were taking aim with it. "Flash Dance!" The bands running down the sleeves of her clothes glowed brighter, and out of her hands came a flurry of light beam projectiles that forced Shadow to veer away to avoid the attack. Then as soon as she landed, she rushed forward again at full speed.

It only took Shadow a moment to adjust, and as soon as she reached him, he somersaulted under the attack and launched another, much larger individual Chaos Spear, but again the attack was avoided as Aurora made a sharp right turn and let the spear fly by. Grunting in mild frustration, Shadow pressed his attack, firing another barrage of smaller chaos energy projectiles that Aurora seemed to be getting hit by, but somehow was unaffected. "She's creating those illusions again."

Aurora panted as she fought to stay ahead of Shadow's attacks, it was clear he hadn't been fooled by her after-images for very long, and he was now attempting to compensate. _"Gotta come up with something and fast, I can't keep this up for much longer!"_

Unbeknownst to the both of them, their battle had attracted the attention of a few of the others inside Tails' laboratory, and now Rouge, Knuckles, Silver, Blaze, Yukon and Sticks were all watching the sparring match take place with rapt interest. "C'mon Rory! Show 'im what for!" Sticks shouted at the top of her lungs.

"You know if I didn't know any better," Knuckles scratched his chin as he watched Aurora roll into a spin dash and force Shadow back on the defensive. "I'd say that her fighting style looks a lot like Sonic's." He missed the wide-eyed expression that had appeared on Sticks' face after he said that. "Her speed, her approach, similar but not exactly the same...she's attacking like she knows how Shadow fights."

"Pfffff, what? You can't - I mean she's just, don't you know she's a big fan of his?! That's all!" The rest of the group gave the badger weird looks after her outburst. "I'm just saying! She-"

Silver grabbed Sticks by the shoulders, throwing off her train of thought. "You mind keeping it down, you're gonna distract them." Before she could object he leaned in and whispered in her ear. "You're gonna raise suspicion, drop it."

Rouge watched the whole thing with an amused smirk on her face. "She _is_ an odd one." she shook her head.

Back on the battlefield, Shadow and Aurora were having a standoff. The pink hedgehog had managed to keep herself from falling, but she was out of breath and desperately trying to maintain the solidity of her battle-ready stance as she fought to get air back in her lungs.

"I have to admit, you've given me more of a challenge than I thought you would, you're really good at playing defense." Shadow noted the slight smile that had appeared on her face after he said that. "But I think we've gone on long enough."

Aurora gasped when Shadow suddenly rushed forward for another assault, and she fought to dodge the kicks and punches as they came, faster than they had the whole battle. _"This is it, I just need to wait for the opening!"_ She watched carefully as the black hedgehog got into a rhythm, some of his attacks had even managed to hit her, though they weren't enough to knock her down. All she had to do was keep it up for a few more seconds, and the opening would appear.

"This battle's over!"

 _"There!"_ It seemed to happen in slow motion. As soon as Shadow launched his fist forward for the finishing blow, Aurora ducked underneath the attack and grabbed his wrist, using his momentum to swing him over her shoulder, and onto his back. "I'd say you're right." she panted.

Shadow looked up at his victorious opponent in stunned silence, as did almost everyone on the sidelines, except for Sticks who just had a smug grin on her face. For a few moments, the only sounds that could be heard were the sounds of nature surrounding them, and of course the panting of the two fighters as they came off their adrenaline high.

Finally it was Sticks who broke the silence. "I knew she'd win." she said with her arms crossed smugly over her chest.

Rouge was the first of the shocked members of the group to regain her composure, as she pasted on a sly smirk and placed a hand on her hip. "Well now, looks like we got us a little powerhouse here...either that or Shadow's slowin' down in his old age."

Shadow shot the bat woman a glare before getting back up off the ground and dusting himself off. Then he regarded the pink hedgehog with an intense look that caused her to shrink back a little. "You knew what was coming. How?"

It was worded like a demand, not a request. She laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her neck. "I-I just...I dunno, I saw it coming."

"That's all? You 'just saw it coming.'"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Well, yeah." He continued to stare at her, then he leaned in close and narrowed his eyes, prompting Aurora to lean back to get some breathing room. "What?"

The Ultimate Life Form said nothing, then simply stood up straight again and crossed his arms, his eyes closed as he exhaled through his nose before answering. "You are a worthy opponent."

"T-Thanks!"

The black hedgehog then opened his eyes and nodded at her. "I will fulfill my part of the wager. You're free to be around me, for whatever it's worth. I'm not particularly good company."

Even as standoffish as they were, hearing those words caused Aurora's heart to flutter a little. Finally she would be able to be around the hedgehog she loved again...naturally he wasn't exactly the same as the one she left behind...

But it was a start.

"Believe me Shadow, you'll be better company than you think." she beamed at him with a dazzling smile. "Somehow I can't wait for this adventure to get started!" Her moment of ecstasy was interrupted when Sticks suddenly tackled her to the ground and pinned her there with a playful grin on her face. "Why?"

"Duh! You beat Shadow of course!"

The other future dwellers gathered around her as well, offering their congratulations and patting her on the back for her accomplishment. "That sure was impressive," Yukon chuckled. "You read that attack like a true martial artist, I don't think even _I_ could've reacted fast enough to do what you did."

"Thanks guys," the pink hedgehog blushed bashfully. "I-" Suddenly Aurora's pupils shrunk, and she grasped at her chest as a panicked expression overcame her. "W-What's...happening to..." she suddenly collapsed to the ground and fainted, and the others knelt down in front of her in utter horror.

"What's happening?!" Sticks shrieked.

The outburst gained the attention of the others, and they all gathered around to see what was going on. "What happened to her?!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Don't worry!" Silver laughed. "She was just overwhelmed with happiness, after all, she's a big fan of Shadow's, remember?" the psychokinetic hedgehog waved them off dismissively, desperately ignoring the incredulous stares on the faces of his friends. "You all just head inside and check on Sonic, we'll take care of everything out here!" Silver looked at Sticks and Yukon and gave a supportive smile. "Back up guys, let's give her a little air."

Seemingly convinced, the others slowly turned and eventually walked back towards the laboratory, and once they were out of earshot, Silver dropped his smile, and Sticks stopped holding her tongue. "Rory did _not_ just faint!" she hissed at him venomously. "What's happening to my best friend?!"

"I have a hunch...but I really hope I'm wrong." Silver pressed two fingers against the fainted girl's neck, and the pulse he felt didn't fill him with much confidence. "Thready...not good." Suddenly Aurora's body seemed to fade slightly, and the three observers jumped back in shock. "Oh this is definitely not good."

Sticks snarled and grabbed the silver hedgehog by his chest fur. "You've got less than five seconds to tell me what horrible monster is doing this to her!"

"Silver!"

The trio turned to see Blaze rushing out to them after she'd gone inside with the others, and the ashen look on her face filled all three of them with dread. "Blaze, what's going on?" Yukon gulped.

The cat girl clenched her fists a moment and shook her head before looking back at them. "I just found out what's really going on...it's Sonic..."

Silver paled and looked back down at Aurora, who still seemed to be flickering in and out of existence. "It can't be."

Blaze nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid so. It's a chain reaction situation. Sonic is dying..." she looked down at the ground where Aurora was slowly fading away, and she shook her head in sadness. "And it looks like he's taking Aurora with him."  
_

 **A/N: I'm almost sure I'm gonna have people coming at me for what I've done here...I won't say anything else, other than just be gentle with your reviews, please? Hopefully it won't be long before the next chapter is out. In the meantime, hang on everyone.**


	11. Power from Within

**Here we go, time for another update to this time travelling adventure. Last time we had two characters dying, so what happens next? Read to find out. But first, we've got some anonymous reviews to take care of!**

 **Nightshade: Well you'll find out what happens to them both in this chapter!**

 **Yago: I love Aurora too, that's why I wanted to use her in this story and why I'm so grateful to E-vay for giving me permission to use her. But, stories like this don't always end in happy endings every time...read and find out.**

 **Shadowthhedgiefangirl: Glad you liked the sparring match, I tried to make sure it was exciting but I still think it could've gone better...oh well, there's always room for improvement. Hope you like this next chapter!**

 **With all that said ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoy this next chapter! I own nothing except the story and Yukon "Houdini" the Sugar Glider. Aurora the Hedgehog belongs to E-vay  
_**

Being in love with someone usually means you've invested the entirety of your heart and soul into the person your affections are aimed at, you'd do anything to make them happy and even the slightest of smiles is enough to get your heart beating faster...the flipside of that however, is that if that person were ever taken away from you for whatever reason, the pain becomes nearly unbearable as your emotions spin wildly out of control with grief.

That was exactly what Amy Rose was going through right now, her heart screamed in agony inside her chest as she watched her beloved Sonic slowly be ripped away from her by a force she couldn't even attempt to fight back against. He was dying, and there wasn't a thing that she could do about it. "Tails, there has to be _something_ you can do!" she exclaimed desperately.

For his part, the young genius was working feverishly to set up some brand new equipment, sweat built up on his forehead as the stress of the situation slowly began to overtake him. "I'm working as fast as I can..." he practically said it to himself, just barely loud enough for anyone else to hear it. His breath was short and he was scrambling as fast as he could, until finally he had hooked Sonic up to some more wires and activated a large machine next to Sonic's hospital bed. "This is all I can think of, a prototype life support system I made only for extreme emergencies...it's still just experimental, it may not even work."

"There's no better time to test it! Do it!"

Nodding at the frantic pink hedgehog who was clinging desperately to Sonic's hand like a lifeline, Tails activated the machine and waited with baited breath as it warmed up. "Life support system activated...it's trying to keep his heart beating..." Sonic's vitals began to stabilize somewhat, and the entire group gasped collectively at what they were witnessing. "It...it's working!"

"Way to go Tails!" Knuckles pumped a fist in victory.

But the celebration was cut short as Sonic suddenly flatlined.

"No!" Amy cried as she whipped around to stare at the young fox. "Tails, do something!"

"I-I've done everything I can!"

The pink hedgehog gave a strangled sob, and she released Sonic's hand to get up and start pressing her hands hard against his chest in an attempt to restart his heart. "Thirty compressions, two breaths!" she whispered to herself before leaning in and placing her mouth over Sonic's. She saw his chest rise when she gave the breath, and so she did it again and repeated the CPR cycle. "You can't die Sonic, you can't!" she grunted with each press. "You promised you'd never leave me!"

Everyone watched in sadness as Amy desperately tried to bring Sonic back, the sharp and steady sound that was the machine reading the flatline hadn't stopped once, acting as a never-ending signal that the fastest thing alive...was no longer alive. "Amy, it's over...just...stop." Tails tried to place his hand on her shoulder, but she snarled and glared at him when he touched her, and immediately went back to work after she turned back to the blue hedgehog's body.

"You can give up if you want to! But he's not dead! Not yet, I can feel it!" she gave another two breaths, and then stepped back to see if anything had changed.

Nothing.

"Sonic...you can't be...dead..." She began to sob uncontrollably, and she fell to her knees as her grief over the loss of her one true love threatened to drown her altogether. "I'm sorry Sonic, I tried..." All hope was lost. Her heart gave an agonized lurch as she thought about how she would never again see that cocky smirk, or the way his eyes would flash in excitement whenever a new challenge presented itself...he was gone, and he took her heart with her.

Silence overtook the laboratory with the exception of Amy's sobs, even Cream was unable to let loose any tears, as she was still in a stunned disbelief over what had happened. "Tails...is Mr. Sonic really...gone?"

Before the fox boy could answer, a bright flash came from the back of the room, and everyone turned to see Shadow standing there in his golden super form, and walking up to Sonic's dead body. "Stand aside."

Amy slowly raised her head to look at Shadow, her tears still flowing freely as she wiped her eyes to try and clear her vision. "Wh-what...what are you going to do?"

The Ultimate Life Form said nothing, and instead merely walked past the mourning pink hedgehog and stood right in front of Sonic. "Alright Sonic...this is your last chance...if this doesn't work, it was nice knowing you." he slowly raised up in the air and began glowing brightly, as a sphere of what appeared to be golden chaos energy formed inside his hands.

"What...what's that?" Amy stared up at the sphere in awe.

Everyone looked on in confusion at what was happening...all except for one, who suddenly felt a sharp pang in his chest the moment he recognized what Shadow was about to attempt. With eyes wide in painful remembrance, Tails spoke up with a wavering whisper, his emotions only barely contained. "I know what he's doing..."

"Chaos...Regeneration!"

The sphere slammed into Sonic and the glow of the chaos energy enveloped his body for a brief moment before slowly dissipating, and then Shadow powered down and landed on his feet. As soon as the black hedgehog had uttered the words, everyone in the room who had been present for the first time it was attempted gave a silent gasp. "Do you think it'll work?" Rouge whispered almost to herself.

Knuckles gave his answer via a shrug. "Who knows? It...didn't work for Cosmo...but maybe it'll work this time?"

After a few more moments, Sonic remained motionless, the steady beep of the flatline still going strong. "I guess that's it then." Shadow turned his back on the blue hedgehog with his eyes closed. "Sayonara, Sonic the Hedge-"

 _Beep_

Everyone froze in place, eyes wide in shock and not daring to even blink as if doing so would make reality come crashing down on them.

 _Beep_

"I'm...not the only one who heard that...right?" Knuckles finally broke the silence. "Was that what I think it was?"

 _Beep_

"A beat!" Cream clasped her hands together as a grin slowly spread across her face. "Tails his heart beat!"

 _Beep_

The fox boy hurried over and checked all the systems, making sure that this sudden miracle wasn't just a glitch. "I-It worked?" he pressed two fingers to Sonic's wrist and checked for a pulse, and moments later a watery smile appeared on his face as he choked a half laugh-half sob. "He's alive!" he turned around suddenly as the others around him erupted into cheers. "Shadow you did it! It worked!" But then his smile faltered slightly as a memory hit him again. "It worked _this time_ anyway."

No one had noticed the young genius have his sobering moment, as they were all still celebrating with the exception of Shadow and Omega. Of course Tails was happy that Sonic had been revived, but there was a small part of him that ached due to the method that had been used. Both Sonic and Shadow had once attempted to combine their strength and use Chaos Regeneration to keep his beloved Cosmo from dying after he himself had been forced to shoot her down to save the entire universe from the Metarex threat. It ultimately failed, and all Sonic brought back was one tiny seed which he'd planted the moment they got back to Mobius.

It was a bittersweet feeling for Tails, and he closed his eyes as a sad smile graced his features in remembrance of the love he lost. _"I'm sorry Cosmo."_ He would've stood there for a few moments more, but he was brought out of his musings when Cream put her hands on his shoulder and shook him to get his attention. "Cream?"

The rabbit's eyes were filled with worry all over again as she looked up at him. "Mr. Sonic still isn't waking up Tails!"

Tails turned back around and faced Sonic again, and there he saw Amy sitting next to the blue hedgehog's body, her eyes staring intently as if watching him would somehow wake him up. "Lemme see." he walked up to the bed and checked the systems again, pulling back when he concluded with a scratch of his head that everything was in working order. "The life support system is keeping him going now, but I couldn't even begin to tell you why he won't wake up."

"So we're back to waiting?" Amy glanced up at the fox with a distressed gaze.

He slowly nodded with his eyes closed. "I've done everything I can, there's no science I can use to bring him back, and I don't think hitting Sonic with another blast of Chaos Regeneration would be a good idea, we still don't understand the full scope of what effect that has on a person." he winced a little as Cosmo returned to his mind, but he quickly shook it off. "My suggestion would be to just wait and see what happens from here. Maybe we can..." he gulped. "Start working on a plan on how to beat Eggman and Ba'Gan without Sonic."

Silence again came over the laboratory at the implications of that statement. While everyone easily understood the logic of what Tails had said, the very idea of preparing a plan that they could execute in case Sonic actually didn't pull through left a heavy weight in their hearts. "I'll say this...if we end up having to do that, then Ba'Gan better be ready, because I'll show him what _real_ pain feels like." Knuckles growled as he slammed a fist into his palm.

"That goes triple for me." Gemerl - who had since been repaired - finally spoke up. "After everything Sonic did for me in my past life, I'll unleash every fighting technique I've got in my memory banks all over that walking booger!"

"Guys!" Everyone turned to look at the pink hedgehog who once again seemed on the verge of tears. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she steeled herself and looked at her friends with all the resolve she could muster. "If you all wouldn't mind, I'd like to be alone with Sonic for a few minutes. Would that be ok?"

"Yes." Tails said quickly before anyone else could have the chance to say otherwise. "Come on everyone, let's give them space." The fox boy began ushering everyone out despite their protests, but he did take a moment to address Shadow. "Leave the Chaos Emeralds here."

The black hedgehog quirked an eyebrow. "Any particular reason?"

"Like I said, there's no science I can use to bring Sonic back..." Tails looked over his shoulder, and Shadow followed his lead as they both glanced at the pink hedgehog who was keeping watch over her beloved. "So maybe science isn't the answer, maybe it's something much simpler...and much more powerful."

Shadow looked down at the fox and nodded once before placing the Chaos Emeralds on a table and walking out. "We'll see if you're right."

As Tails followed him out, he stopped a moment to look over his shoulder again, breathing out a despondent sigh as he felt his heart ache for the young woman who was suffering so. _"Good luck Amy."_ he walked out of the room, and almost immediately he was approached by Cream, who looked nearly as worried as Amy did. "Cream."

"What's going on Tails?"

The young genius sighed again and shook his head. "There's nothing I can do Cream...so now we're down to just hoping and praying that a miracle happens."

Pondering his words, Cream found it in herself to relinquish a small smile as she looked up at him. "Well, Mr. Sonic always said that miracles were his specialty."

Tails laughed a little at that, and looked over his shoulder at the closed door he'd just walked through. "True that...who knows? Maybe this is what we should've done all along, after all," he placed his hands on Cream's shoulders and smiled at her, a tender smile filled with gratitude for her cheering him up, even if it was only a little bit. "Power is enriched by the heart."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Still you fight. Why? Surely you don't still believe you can defeat me?"

Sonic grunted in frustration and fatigue as he gripped his right arm with his left one, how long had this battle against Ba'Gan been drawn out now? Hours? Days? Weeks? The blue blur had lost track of passing time during his exile in this strange dream world he'd gotten himself stuck in, and for some reason he couldn't even begin to explain, he'd felt himself growing continually weaker as he continued to fight. It wasn't even that Ba'Gan was a particularly difficult opponent.

In fact it was just the opposite.

After the initial burst Ba'Gan had used, he'd seemed fairly content to just take the hits Sonic gave out. Punches, kicks, spin dashes and homing attacks, he'd even tried to see if he could unleash a Light Speed Attack but it was to no avail. The longer the battle went on, the more tired he became, and it was taking every ounce of willpower within him to not just give in to the increasingly powerful temptation to lay down and close his eyes.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear," the blue hedgehog grunted out weakly. "Giving up isn't exactly my style." He took a deep breath and steeled himself as he went in for one last attack. He revved up a spin dash, his teeth gritted in determination as he fought off the exhaustion that was overtaking him so suddenly, and he charged ahead with all the strength left in his body.

He was promptly deflected by Ba'Gan and he crashed to the ground in a heap.

"Fool."

Sonic tried to get up, he tried to get his arms to move so he could lift himself back up, but his body was disobeying his will. He wanted to scream, shout, do anything except lay there and be pathetic, his friends were counting on him! He had to get up and fight, he had to-

"Sleep."

Sonic gasped and suddenly felt the urge to pass out increase. "No, I've got to...I-I've got to-"

"Sleep."

What was Ba'Gan doing to him? He couldn't let himself be taken out, not like this, he was Sonic the Hedgehog! The fastest thing alive! He always had energy to spare! But then again, sleep _did_ sound pretty good right about now, he was just _so tired._

"Sleep, Sonic the Hedgehog. Rest now. The battle is over."

"No it's not," he managed to whisper out. "As soon as I take a little nap, you're mine." He felt his eyes begin to droop, slowly closing as his vision blurred and what little strength he had left leave him. His friends would be alright until he recovered, right? _"I'll be right back guys, promise."_

 _Chaos...Regeneration!_

Sonic heard a voice echo around him, almost ethereal in nature. _"Shadow?"_ he blinked a few times and laid there as he tried to ascertain what exactly it was he'd heard, then his eyes shot open in awareness. What was he doing? Taking a nap? There was a baddie that needed bashing!

"No!" Ba'Gan shouted at the sky, shaking a fist in rage. "It was over! You meddling menace, I will be sure to come after you next!"

"Impressive alliteration there pal," Sonic laughed as he slowly got back to his feet, taking a few deep breaths as he relished in the feeling of strength returning to his aching body. "Gotta admit, you almost had me there for a while, but it's not that easy to bring down Sonic the Hedgehog!"

The creature growled in barely contained rage, his fists and teeth clenched so tightly that the sound of bones cracking was loud enough for them both to hear.

"So," Sonic wiped his nose with his thumb before getting into a battle-ready stance. "Ready for round two?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It had been a few minutes since the room was cleared out, leaving her and Sonic alone in silence, save for the beeping of the medical monitor and the hum of the life support system. Her mind was still awhirl with everything that had just happened, as soon as she saw Sonic flatline her whole world had come crashing down around her. Years ago she'd taught herself CPR in case of an emergency, but it had never quite sunk in that one day she'd need to use it, and certainly not for Sonic the Hedgehog.

For all the good it did either of them.

Her attempts to resuscitate him had been useless, he surely would've been dead already if it hadn't been for Shadow and his utilization of a Chaos-based move that she'd ever only seen used once before...and that one time it had been a dismal failure. She chuckled dryly as her thoughts briefly led her to the idea that she should be thankful that this time it had worked...but somehow she couldn't let herself think that way.

"Your _body's_ alive, but _you're_ still dead..." she whispered to herself as she choked back a sob. She looked him over, taking in his features. He was just so beautiful, brilliant cobalt blue quills sharp enough to shatter any robot he went up against and yet so smooth to the touch, strong arms that had saved her countless times and enveloped her in a protective embrace...and those breathtaking emerald green eyes, always so full of life and twinkling with excitement, everything about was him just...perfect.

The thought of losing him made her throat tighten and her heart lurch painfully in her chest.

"I don't think you have any idea how much you mean to me Sonic..." she gently placed his hand inside hers, stroking a thumb over his knuckles as her eyes began to water. "For years I chased you, talked about how we were meant to be...how one day I'd marry you and we'd be together forever," she laughed through a sob as she removed one of her hands to wipe away the tears that had begun to flow. "I still remember the day you promised you'd never leave me again, and I was _so happy_ to see you that I turned into a sobbing mess in your arms...a-and you held me, you let me get it all out, you'd never done _anything_ like that for me before...a-and...y-you've always managed to...t-to keep that promise." She squeezed her eyes shut to try and stop the flowing of her tears. "Sonic, come back to me... _please_...we need you! _I_ need you!" she sniffled before she leaned forward and pressed her lips against Sonic's forehead, hovering over him in a silent plea that he would somehow feel her presence. "Please...please Sonic..."

She continued murmuring that word through hiccups and sobs as she grasped his hand desperately as if it were a lifeline, totally unaware that her tears were rolling down from her cheeks to his...and unaware of the steadily increasing shine emanating from the Chaos Emeralds behind her.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Come on, don't I _ever_ get tired?!"

Sonic had quickly come to the realization that his sudden revival and burst of strength had a few downsides to it. On the one hand, he no longer felt tired, in fact he felt like he could fight forever if he needed to...on the other hand, he was starting to think he needed to.

Once his strength returned, Sonic had immediately been attacked by Ba'Gan, who all of a sudden didn't seem content to just take hits anymore, now he was actively dishing them out too. The super form he'd stolen was making the battle even more difficult, as it seemed that nothing Sonic was able to pull off even made Ba'Gan flinch, and for every attack Sonic was able to get in, Ba'Gan was able to get in three or four.

"Now I know how Eggman feels fighting _me,"_ Sonic grunted as he was suddenly knocked onto his back by a lightning-fast kick, and he used the side of his fist to wipe his mouth. "Not a lotta fun, gotta admit."

"You amuse me less and less," Ba'Gan raised his hands above his head and charged a huge ball of chaos energy, and he sent it flying down towards Sonic who quickly dashed away and tried to rush up with a spinning kick, but it was easily blocked, and moments later he found himself being swung around by his ankle as Ba'Gan had grabbed him after the block. "You _cannot_ win, yield!" Ba'Gan slammed him to the ground. "Yield!" another slam. "YIELD!"

Sonic grunted as he slammed his palms into the ground to try and regain some balance, and he rolled up into a spin dash which forced Ba'Gan to release his ankle. He zoomed away and gained some distance before uncurling and getting back into a battle-ready stance, but he didn't even get a second to react before Ba'Gan was on him again, the monster's hand wrapped tightly around his throat as he was slammed to the ground again. "Not exactly a fan of fighting fair, are ya?"

"Silence!" Ba'Gan raised Sonic off the ground and bashed his head against the ground on his way back down. "I've already tolerated far too much of your insolence, your strength cannot possibly compare to mine and yet you insist on resisting, but that ends _now!"_

The blue hedgehog choked out a grunt as he felt the pressure around his throat increase, his mind raced as he found his ability to breathe quickly fading away. _"I've gotta do something..._ anything!" Panic began to set in as he desperately clawed at the hand tightening around his throat like a vice, hoping against hope that maybe he could get it to let go.

"Goodbye Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Just as Sonic began to think those were the last words he would ever hear, another faint voice registered in his ears, just as familiar as the one before but much softer and with much more emotion. _"Amy?"_ As he fought to focus on her voice, he soon found every other noise starting to fade into the background as her voice came to the forefront, and the words he heard gave him an unexplained burst of strength as they came in. _"What's going on?"_

"No, not again! How many times must someone interfere?!"

He'd barely registered Ba'Gan's shout of frustration, nor was he even able to feel the monster's hand around his throat anymore. All he could really hear anymore was Amy's desperate cries for him, and the more he heard, the stronger he felt.

 _Sonic, come back to me..._ please _...we need you!_ I _need you! Please...please Sonic..._

"You heard the lady!" Sonic grinned and turned his head back towards his opponent, who judging by the snarl on his face, was well aware that things were about to go sour. "Looks like this party's over! It's been real, but part of being a hero means I go where I'm needed, and right now, _she needs me!"_ Sonic felt the familiar warmth of chaos energy coursing through him, and moments later he too was bathed in the golden glow of his super form, and he kicked his imposter off of him and went on the attack.

"This...is impossible!" Ba'Gan reached out with his fist, but his punch was easily caught within Sonic's palm, and the monster soon found himself flying across the blank landscape after Sonic unleashed a punch of his own. "No, I had you defeated! You were already dead!"

"Nope, just _mostly_ dead!" Sonic tapped Ba'Gan's shoulder from behind, and as soon as he turned around to meet him, he unleashed a brutal eagle kick that sent Ba'Gan crashing to the ground, then he curled into a ball and slammed into the creature's back as he pushed him farther into the ground. "Wanna know the thing about being _mostly_ dead?" he grabbed the exhausted alien by the scruff of his neck and grinned triumphantly at him. "Being _mostly_ dead means you're still technically _alive,_ and that's all I need!" he threw Ba'Gan higher into the air, and mere seconds later he launched a powerful beam of chaos energy that completely enveloped Ba'Gan, and when Sonic ceased fire...there was no sign of his opponent. "Finally...can I wake up now?"

Just as he said that, Sonic was blinded by a white light.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Amy had cried so much that she was practically numb, the ache in her heart had dulled but now it just seemed to sit heavily inside her chest, her mind blank after several minutes of pleading with Sonic to return to the land of the living, all to no avail. She stared straight ahead, purposely keeping her gaze off of Sonic so that she didn't break down into a new wave of tears that surely would've exhausted her even more than she already was.

So she failed to notice when Sonic's eyes fluttered open. "Amy?"

His voice...so faint, was her mind betraying her now? Forcing her to hear his voice in her head to compensate for the fact that she refused to look at him? "Terrific, I'm going insane, as if I wasn't messed up enough already."

"Amy."

It was louder this time...much louder. _"Wait...am I...not hallucinating after all?!"_ She was afraid to look down. If she looked and he was still unconscious, it would only act as a confirmation that she'd driven herself mad with grief, and that was a reality she didn't want to have to accept.

"Ames, come on already."

That was so much like Sonic it wasn't even funny. She squeezed her eyes shut and tilted her head down so that she would see him when she opened her eyes, and she sent up a silent prayer to whoever was listening that she would look down and see a miracle. She counted to three and she opened her eyes, and almost immediately her breath hitched in her throat.

She was staring right into the emerald green orbs of Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Sonic?" she breathed out in disbelief.

"Hey..." Sonic rasped. "What's a guy gotta do to get something to drink around here?"

"SONIC!"

The blue hedgehog yelped as he was suddenly glomped by the sobbing pink hedgehog, who was now clinging onto him like a lifeline. "Hey, c'mon Ames, you didn't really think I'd break my promise didya?"

Amy pulled back and choked out a sobbing laugh, a watery smile appearing on her face as she slowly shook her head in response. "I'm so glad you're ok, do you have any idea how close we were to losing you?"

"Pfft," Sonic scoffed weakly as he lazily waved a hand in the air. "Ya can't get rid of me _that_ easily, although after that dream I just had, I'm _seriously_ craving one of your homemade chili dogs."

Amy laughed again when he winked at her, the tension she'd been holding inside her faded as she laughed with extreme relief and adoration for the blue hedgehog laying on the bed in front of her. "I'll make sure to whip you up a batch the first chance I get."

It was then that the rest of their friends suddenly burst through the door and witnessed the sight of Amy laughing and talking to Sonic...and _Sonic was talking back._ Tails managed to get in front of the stampede and was the first one through as he started unhooking his big brother from wires, and he spared a glance at the table where the Chaos Emeralds were, smiling to himself as he noted the fading glow they were emitting. Then he took in the sight of Sonic and Amy, joking and laughing with youthful abandon as if nothing had ever gone wrong, save for the rasp in Sonic's voice from disuse. Tails grinned and shook his head as he got back to work. "Power is enriched by the heart."

"What was that buddy?"

"Nothing Sonic," Tails grinned internally. "Nothing at all."

As the group of friends reunited with their almost lost colleague, no one noticed the absence of a lavender cat who had left moments after confirming Sonic was truly alive.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Aurora?"

The bright pink hedgehog heard her name being called, maybe Silver's voice, and the first thing that came to her mind was when had she fallen asleep? She remembered beating Shadow in the sparring match, and now she was apparently on the ground. When she opened her eyes, she saw all of her friends from her own time - and of course Blaze - sitting around her with worried looks on their faces. "Um...this may seem like a stupid question, but why am I laying in the dirt?"

"Rory!"

Aurora grunted as her best friend suddenly jumped on top of her, wrapping her arms around her torso as she started babbling incoherently...of course this wouldn't be the first time. "Hey, easy Sticks! You've stopped using words!"

"Sorry!" the badger pulled back a bit and grinned sheepishly, but the relief was very evident in her eyes, as well as everybody else's. "In my defense, you almost faded out of existence! How would _you_ react if some uncontrollable phenomenon tried to steal _your_ best friend from you?!"

Aurora's smile fell, and she glanced at each of her friends with eyes wide in shock. "Is...is _that_ what happened to me?" her hands began roaming around her own body in an attempt to reassure herself she was still there, then she focused on Silver who had his eyes downcast. "Silver, what happened?"

Silver rubbed the back of his neck and his frown grew. "Sonic almost died-" he was cut off by Aurora's pained gasp. "No it's ok! He's fine!" he chuckled once. "Which, ironically enough, is the reason that uh... _you're_ fine."

"It was a close call," Blaze chimed in with her arms crossed over her chest. "From what I heard it took a combination of Shadow using a move called Chaos Regeneration, and apparently something along the lines of Amy praying to the Chaos Emeralds or something like that, I wasn't able to hear a more valid explanation before I came outside to check on your status."

"Power is enriched by the heart." Aurora nodded once in apparent understanding, her lips pressed into a tight line as the gravity of what had happened hit her. "Mom always told me that growing up. Our emotions, our passion, they can make differences even _we_ don't realize, and the Chaos Emeralds respond to those feelings and can make amazing things happen. That must be how Mom brought Dad back, and I bet she has no idea that she did it."

"Hey guys," the group turned to Yukon. "If Aurora's ok, we should probably get inside before someone gets suspicious, I don't think the whole 'fainting from happiness' excuse is gonna fly for much longer."

"Wait, what?"

Silver drew into himself and sheepishly shrugged when everyone turned to glance at him, although in Aurora's case it was more of a glare. "Well uh...here's the thing, we couldn't exactly say that you passed out because you were in danger of fading out of existence, so-"

"So you told everyone that I was _so excited_ to hang out with Shadow that I fainted like a crazed fangirl."

"Pretty much, yeah."

Aurora groaned and slapped her palm against her face. "Great, all that time spent trying to gain Shadow's respect and now I gotta get past _that_ little detail."

"Well in his defense, there really weren't a lot of options..." Yukon withered a bit under the glare he was receiving from the pink hedgehog, but he trudged on. "I mean, even if we told them you were sick, that probably would've made them start looking into what was wrong with you, and then we would've been found out!"

"I get the picture, thanks." Aurora sighed and slowly stood back up, stretching out once she was back on her feet. "In hindsight, what Shadow thinks of me is the _least_ of our problems."

"What do you mean?" Blaze asked.

Aurora looked down to the ground for a moment before addressing her comrades. "I mean the dangers of this mission just got more real than ever before, _especially_ for me." Aurora looked back down to the ground, her brow furrowed in thought as she began to truly realize what was at stake here. "If anything happens to my parents, whether they get hurt in a fight or catch the freakin' _flu,_ there's a chance that something might happen to _me_ as a result...and that's only the beginning."

"Come on, you're overreacting!" Sticks scoffed.

"No, she's right." Silver was now the center of attention, as a serious expression overtook his face. "Any little thing we do could potentially have a drastic effect on the future, it's called the Butterfly Effect. Even something small and insignificant we do here could turn into a monstrous disaster twenty years from this time."

"But I thought that was the point," Yukon raised an eyebrow. "Go back in time to change the future, right?"

"That's right." Aurora walked past the others and stood so that her back was facing them, then she turned to look at them with a determined gaze. _"My_ Shadow sacrificed himself to make sure we got here safely so we could change things for the better, and that's exactly what we're gonna do. If we start second-guessing ourselves then we won't be able to actually do something when the time comes. It could even get to the point where we're weighing pros and cons of letting someone get hurt because maybe they were supposed to. We can't afford to do that."

The group nodded, even Silver who still looked rather anxious about the whole situation couldn't help but agree with Aurora's assessment. "I guess you're right...but everything I know about time travel is screaming at me that this is wrong."

"You have voices in your head? I can fix that!"

Silver activated his psychokinesis when Sticks made a move to tackle him, and he briefly glared at her from the side of his eyes. "Please don't, I'm ok." he released the badger who glared back at him after she was back on the ground, but he paid it no mind. "I get it, it's not your typical time travel story. Normally it's about making sure the future _isn't_ changed, but in this case we're purposely trying to make it better."

"We got that, what's your point?"

The psychokinetic hedgehog ignored the snide tone of Sticks' voice and continued. "Just this...whatever we do here, let's be careful and only try to make changes that we really think will _actually_ make things better...the last thing we need is to go back to the future and find that we made things _worse."_

"Agreed." Blaze uncrossed her arms and looked into the distance. "And our first step should be finding that creature and destroying it. It's the source of all our problems. We take it out, and your future should be secured, and my dimension will be safe as well."

"Somehow," Sticks said. "I get the feeling that's gonna be easier said than done."

Meanwhile, deep inside a secret base at an undisclosed location, a pair of swirling red eyes snapped open, and a mouth emitted a vicious snarl as embarrassment over being defeated turned into rage. "You think you're rid of me Sonic the Hedgehog? Think _again._ Your world shall fall just as all the others before have. Mark my words."  
_

 **A/N: Well, there you have it! I hope you guys liked that little bit of Sonamy I threw in! Some of you are probably wondering what took so long, heh. There'll be more as time goes on, things will start speeding up soon too. Review and let me know what you thought of this chapter!**


	12. Divided We Stand

**Shocking I know, but yes! It's FINALLY time for an update to this story. I'll admit it's a small one, but at least it's something, right? The next one should be a bit beefier, but until then I hope this holds you over. Now one thing I do want to mention. Since this story was updated, E-vay has - for the most part at least - vanished from the likes of Tumblr, enjoying her life with her boyfriend and I'm happy that she's doing well in that regard.**

 **I sincerely hope that she's still out there and that she'll see this story has not been abandoned or forgotten. Much like her, life has taken a hold on me and it's significantly slowed me down. But I still love Aurora and everything that she is, and I still intend to continue this story and pay honor to quite frankly, the best Sonamy fan child I have ever seen, for several reasons.**

 **Enough of that, let's check the anonymous reviews!**

 **John: It's FINALLY here! Sorry for the long wait!**

 **Shadowthhedgiefa: Glad you enjoyed it, here's another one!**

 **Nightshade: Amy is awesome isn't she? She'll have more chances to be awesome in the future!**

 **Freaking out: You can come back to life now, it's update time. xD**

 **Well that's that. If any of E-vay's fans are still out there, I hope you enjoy this update. Without further ado, let's get started! I own nothing except the story and Yukon "Houdini" the Sugar Glider. Aurora the Hedgehog belongs to E-vay.  
_**

"Eh, boss?" Orbot hovered over to his creator with a bowl of nachos. "You know, you really should eat something, you've been watching that security footage for several hours. A fed brain is a healthy brain." Eggman grunted and took a handful of the cheese-covered tortilla chips and stuffed them into his mouth before glaring back at the constantly replaying footage of Ba'Gan's sudden rebelliousness back in Blue Ridge, much to the confusion of Orbot. "What exactly is it that you're looking for?" the red robot finally asked.

The doctor licked his fingers and turned his chair around as he began to pace around the room. "Ba'Gan's sudden concern for the safety of that pink nuisance is unsettling."

"Well, he _was_ still merged with Sonic at the time, perhaps it was Sonic influencing his actions again?"

"I considered that. I dismissed it." the doctor continued to pace, finally coming to a halt as he stroked his mustache in thought. "His reaction to my threat didn't indicate it was Sonic trying to protect her, Ba'Gan _wants_ her for _something._ Whatever it is, he's willing to challenge me to get it, and that is a new factor I have to take into account."

"Could it be that Ba'Gan simply finds Miss Rose attractive? After all, she _has_ grown into quite a lovely young lady over these past few years."

Eggman froze. _"Could it really be that simple?"_ the doctor went back to his chair and began watching the footage again, listening to the recording and watching as Ba'Gan threatened him simply for the sake of preserving the life of one of his mortal enemies. _"Perhaps his connection to Sonic is stronger than I thought...or maybe..."_ Eggman stuffed some more nachos into his mouth and began typing with his clean hand before waving Orbot off. "Go make yourself useful elsewhere, I have work to do." Once he heard the door whoosh open and close again, Eggman hacked back into the A.R.K. database and pulled up the available information on Incursites. "I must have overlooked something in my original perusal...so let's see if I can't find out why Ba'Gan desires little Miss Amy so badly."

He was about to get started when suddenly the door opened again, and Eggman quickly aborted the search and turned around in his chair, finding himself face to face with a blue, distorted, and clearly angry version of his mortal enemy. "Doctor, I require an explanation for what happened. And I also require another favor from you."

 _"Somehow I get the feeling I know what that favor is."_ Eggman gave Ba'Gan a neutral stare as he steepled his fingers. "An explanation? Perhaps I'll give _you_ one after you give _me_ one. Why were you so eager to protect one of my longtime mortal enemies? Maybe you don't realize the consequences of what you've done. Your actions have jeopardized everything we've worked towards. Tails now has the Chaos Emeralds, which means he's holding _your_ source of power. Without those emeralds, your super form will be impossible to attain."

Ba'Gan just stared at Eggman for a moment before finally deciding to speak. "That female is imperative to my mission, the nature of which I don't intend to disclose to you. Just know that unless I have that female, we'll accomplish nothing. Even those emeralds are not as important as this."

Eggman raised an eyebrow at this. "If having a female is so important, why not just find a different one?" he leaned forward slightly. "What makes _Amy Rose_ so special?"

"You're testing my patience Doctor," Ba'Gan bared his jagged teeth. "If you want my help in taking over this world, you will grant this one simple request. Capture that female and bring her to me _alive._ Once that's done, we can move forward with whatever plan you want, but I _need_ that girl."

The doctor regarded the slightly disfigured blue hedgehog carefully for a few moments. It was clear that Ba'Gan was not willing to divulge any more information than that, and he was no use to him as an enemy. Finally turning around in his chair to face the computer console again, Eggman began working on their next course of action. "Very well Ba'Gan, you shall have her. But first, we need to get our hands on the Chaos Emeralds again. Without them, we'll be fighting a losing battle, and I've spent enough time these past seven years doing that." his computer began beeping as several bright lights began flashing across a map of what appeared to be Mobius. "Fortunately, in my brilliance, I've already figured out a plan to get the emeralds back, and perhaps even take care of an unforeseen circumstance."

"And the female?"

"If all goes according to plan, Amy will be all yours." Eggman stood up and began walking out of the room. "Come Ba'Gan, there's no time like the present to set wheels in motion!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Sonic, you really should be resting."

The speedy blue hedgehog ignored Tails' counsel as he went through a speedy stretching routine to loosen up the tightness in his muscles. He was always known as a pretty fast healer, which was fitting for the fastest thing alive. So as soon as he'd felt strong enough to stand after nothing short of coming back from the dead, he quickly jumped right back in as if he'd never been hurt. "Well ya know what they say, no rest for the weary, am I right pal?" he said with a snicker.

Tails didn't fall for the typical cheesy grin and just shot his big brother a disapproving stare. "We're not in any rush to jump back into battle Sonic, we have the Chaos Emeralds, and Eggman doesn't. He's going to be spending at least a _little_ time trying to come up with a new plan, which gives _you_ a little time to rest and recover. This wasn't like all of those other times where you 'almost died,' you were _actually dead_ for a while there."

Sonic scoffed at that, but after seeing that Tails wasn't about to back down, he rolled his eyes and hopped up onto a table with a begrudging smirk. "There, happy? I'm resting."

"Very." the fox boy gave a smirk and a curt not as he turned to leave, but he brushed by Amy first to give her some instructions. "Make sure Sonic stays put if you can, he doesn't need to push himself yet."

Amy raised an eyebrow. "You think _I'll_ be able to keep him still?"

"Not really, but I'm saying you have the best chance. Just give it a try." He continued walking and left Amy to handle Sonic, and eventually the young inventor made his way back into the main room of his workshop, where Blaze and her friends had just entered from outside. "Where've you guys been?"

"Oh, just making sure our fangirling friend here woke up okay!" Silver slapped a hand onto Aurora's shoulder with a grin, but that grin faded when his teammates - Aurora in particular - shot him a vicious glare that told him in no small way that just because that was the excuse they'd used for Aurora's condition, didn't mean they appreciated him emphasizing that point. "And I'll shut up now."

Tails shrugged and walked up to Blaze, "Now that Sonic's in the clear, we can try to get you back to your dimension so you can rescue the Sol Emeralds from whatever threat is attacking your world." he motioned for her to follow him. "Come on, we can have Shadow open up a Chaos Control portal for you to get back to your dimension."

"That's...wonderful!" Blaze pasted on a smile and started following the young fox, but not before shooting her teammates a meaningful look.

"Just our luck, Uncle Tails is being _too_ helpful." Aurora sighed and smacked her palm against her forehead. "Now we've gotta come up with an excuse for why we need to stay here, there's very little we can accomplish in Blaze's dimension."

"All these lies, I don't like it." Sticks said with an edge to her voice. "Lies unravel, and the truth eventually reveals itself, and we've stacked up a lotta lies!"

"We can't stop now." Silver spoke up, trying his best to ignore the annoyed glares he was receiving thanks to his previous gaffe. "Telling everyone we're from the future would be an awful plan. The longer the truth is hidden, the better chance we have of doing this right. There's just too many factors for us to come clean now."

"You know something Silver? I'm getting really-"

"TAILS!"

Sticks was cut off by the sudden panicked and enraged shout of the Master Emerald guardian, who was frantically pointing at and showing Tails his portable monitor which was showing the image of the Master Emerald. "The Master Emerald is flashing, it's not supposed to do that, something's wrong!"

"You sure about that? The Master Emerald tends to flash a lot, maybe it's because Shadow-"

Knuckles growled and got up in Tails' face. "Don't you think I know my job?! The Master Emerald doesn't flash like that unless it's in danger, something's coming for it! It might be Eggman!"

"Did someone say Eggman?" Everyone stopped as Sonic suddenly walked over with an excited grin on his face, and Amy at his left flank with a disapproving frown. "About time I got some action, sitting around is boring!"

"The concept of rest is really foreign to you, isn't it?" Tails deadpanned before shaking his head and getting to his computer console. "Alright, activating sensors to scan near Angel Island." After a moment, the fox boy's eyes widened in shock. "Knuckles, you're right, someone _is_ headed for Angel Island!" Tails zoomed in on the signal, and what the sensors revealed caused Knuckles to reel back in horror. "Knuckles," Tails looked at the guardian with remorse. "It's Metal Sonic, and he'll be there in only a few minutes. Eggman must be going for the Master Emerald to try and counter the Chaos Emeralds."

"I have to get there, _now!"_

"Whoa there knucklehead!" Sonic grabbed the guardian's wrist and stopped him, but Knuckles quickly pulled away and snarled at the blue hedgehog for getting in his way. "What makes you think you'll beat him there from all the way out here? By the time you get back to Angel Island, Metal Sonic will be long gone and the emerald will be in Eggman's hands."

"So you expect me to just sit back and watch?!"

"No," Sonic grinned and held up a Chaos Emerald. "I expect you to stop and listen for a change, we'll be there in a second, literally."

"Fine, but you better not slow me down once we get there."

"You _do_ remember who you're talkin' to right?" the smirk never left his face. "Chaos-"

The sound of an alarm blaring cut Sonic off. "What the?!" Tails responded to the alert, and what his sensors told him caused him to growl. "Eggman's attacking Station Square!"

"What for?!" Amy asked incredulously. "Is he just throwing a temper tantrum after he lost the Chaos Emeralds?!"

"Think for a minute Pinkie," Rouge scoffed. "Eggman's got Metal Sonic going after Knuckie's precious rock," Knuckles' indignant growl was ignored. "And Eggman's just randomly attacking the city for no apparent reason. Does that sound like something he would do?"

Amy didn't get to answer as Shadow spoke up instead. "The doctor is trying to draw us out, keep us from stopping Metal Sonic before he can get his hands on the Master Emerald," the black hedgehog crossed his arms. "I wouldn't be surprised if he's hoping we'll take the Chaos Emeralds with us so he can get his hands on those too."

"There's something else to consider!" Aurora raised her voice and garnered everyone's attention. "Eggman might be thinking that since Blaze is here, the Sol Emeralds are around too!"

"Makes sense." Tails nodded. "As much as I hate to do this, we'll need to split up, we can't let Eggman get to the Master Emerald, and we can't let him wreck Station Square." the fox boy turned around in his chair and got up to face everyone. "We've got the numbers, so we'll use them. Knuckles, you and Shadow get to Angel Island and cut off Metal Sonic. I'll go with Sonic and Amy to take on Eggman. Who's with us?"

"I'll _gladly_ go to Angel Island and help defend the Master Emerald." Rouge said with a smirk, much to Knuckles' chagrin. "Maybe you'll be so grateful that you'll let _me_ have it?"

"You're delusional and insane."

"Love you too Knuckie."

Aurora stepped up with a determined expression. "I'll go too."

"If Rory's going, then so am I!" Sticks exclaimed.

"Alright, that makes five, that should be enough to take on Metal Sonic." Tails turned to Blaze and Silver, "We could use a little more muscle in case Eggman has something up his sleeve, and maybe with you there Blaze," he allowed himself a smug smirk. "We might be able to trick Eggman into going on a wild goose chase looking for the Sol Emeralds. That might keep him distracted later down the line and give us some time to come up with a more solid plan to stop Ba'Gan."

"Sounds good to me!" Silver gave a thumbs up. "So...what about everyone else?"

Tails regarded the rest of their party, smiling when he saw Cream among them. "Everyone else will stay here and guard the lab, I wouldn't put it past Eggman to try and sabotage us while we're out playing defense." he glanced at Cream specifically. "Cream, think you can handle it?"

"You betcha!" Cream beamed at the young fox boy and looked back and forth at her teammates. "I'm sure with me, Gemerl, Mr. Yukon and Mr. Omega here together, we'll be able to keep everything here safe and sound!"

"Then it's settled. Let's go team!"

With that declaration, both teams - armed with one Chaos Emerald each - activated Chaos Control and vanished without a trace, leaving the others alone in the lab. "Well, they're gone." Yukon said awkwardly. "So...now what?"

"Well, now we wait." Cream replied. "If they need our help, they'll let us know. In the meantime, would anyone like some tea? Mr. Omega?"

"I do not require sustenance." Omega said with his monotone voice. Then after a few moments, the large robot turned to Cream and looked down at the small rabbit. "However, if there is high-grade oil available, it would be...appreciated."

"So you _do_ have a soft spot." Gemerl gave a synthetic laugh.

Cream regained Omega's attention before Gemerl's taunting could spark a firefight in the lab. "I'll be glad to get you some oil Mr. Omega, I'm sure Tails has nothing but the best that he uses for his planes."

"Your hospitality is appreciated."

Cream nodded with a smile and went to find Omega some oil, leaving Yukon alone with the two robots who seemed to be shooting sparks at each other, almost literally. "Cream, make it fast okay? I really don't wanna watch a robot rumble!" Yukon gulped nervously. "Next time, I'm going out into the field. It's probably less dangerous."  
_

 **A/N: Yeah, it's a split up into teams chapter, but those are necessary sometimes. Too many cooks spoil the soup, or something like that. But what's Ba'Gan after Amy for? And why is Metal Sonic after the Master Emerald? Will Gemerl and Omega have that rumble and cause Yukon to freak out? Will Aurora ever earn Shadow's affection back?**

 **All these answers will be answered in due time! In the meantime, read and review, share with your friends, and I hope to be able to update again soon. Hope you enjoyed!**


End file.
